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Info
Subfamily: Panicoideae
Genus etymology: Paspalum = "millet" [Greek] some species are used as cereals
Species etymology: paniculatum = "having a panicle" [Latin] refering to the inflorescence
Photosynthetic type: C4 (warm season)
Nativity: naturalized - accidental
First recorded in Hawaiʻi: 1939
Map
Inflorescence
Plant
Spikelets
Collar
Description
Plants perennial; cespitose or rhizomatous. Culms to 100 cm, erect; nodes pubescent. Sheaths pubescent; ligules 0.2-0.5 mm; blades 12-35 cm long, 10-24 mm wide, flat, scabrous, pubescent near the margins, margins usually undulate. Panicles terminal, with 18-50 racemosely arranged branches; branches 0.8-8.9 cm, spreading to diverging, often arcuate; branch axes 0.2-0.5 mm wide, narrowly winged, scabrous, terminating in a spikelet. Spikelets 1.1-1.3 mm long, 0.9-1 mm wide, paired, diverging from the branch axes, ovate, light brown to stramineous. Lower glumes absent; upper glumes and lower lemmas pubescent, 3-veined; upper florets 1.1-1.3 mm, stramineous. Caryopses 0.7-0.8 mm, light brown. 2n = 20, 40, 60.
(Description source: Barkworth, M.E., Capels, K.M., Long, S. & Piep, M.B. (eds.) 2003. Flora of North America, north of Mexico. Volume 25. Magnoliophyta: Commelinidae (in part): Poaceae, Part 2. Oxford University Press, New York. 783 pp http://floranorthamerica.org/Paspalum_paniculatum )