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Info
Subfamily: Chloridoideae
Genus etymology: Sporobolus = "seed thrower" referring to the seed being ejected from the pericarp
Species etymology: tenuissimus = "very slender" [Latin] refering to the inflorescence
Photosynthetic type: C4 (warm season)
Nativity: naturalized - accidental
First recorded in Hawaiʻi: 2022
Map
Inflorescence
Habit
Spikelets
Description
Plants annual; tufted. Culms 30–100 cm. Sheaths glabrous, including the apices; ligules 0.2–0.3 mm; blades 5–23 cm long, 2–4 mm wide, flat or folded, glabrous on both surfaces, margins glabrous. Panicles (8)15–30 cm long, 3.5–8 cm wide, open, diffuse, cylindrical; lower nodes with 1–2(3) branches; primary branches 0.6–5 cm, capillary, spreading 30–70° from the rachises, without spikelets on the lower 1/2; secondary branches spreading; pedicels 0.5–5 mm. Spikelets 0.7–1.1 mm, plumbeous to purplish. Glumes unequal, obovate to ovate, membranous; lower glumes 0.1–0.4 mm, occasionally absent; upper glumes 0.2–0.5 mm; lemmas 0.7–1.1 mm, elliptic, membranous, glabrous, acute to obtuse; paleas 0.7–1.1 mm, elliptic, membranous; anthers 0.2–0.3 mm, yellowish. Fruits 0.4–0.7 mm, pyriform or quadroid, somewhat laterally flattened, light brownish to whitish. 2n = 12.
(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/Sporobolus_tenuissimus )