Desert Panicgrass

Panicum urvilleanum Kunth, Rev. Gram. 403. 1831
Panicum megastachyum J. Presl, in Presl, Rel. Haenk. 1: 305. 1830. Not P. megastachyum Nees, 1826.
Panicum Preslei Kunth, Enum. 1: 121. 1833.
Panicum Urvilleanum longiglume Scribn. Bull. U. S. Dep. Agr. Agrost. 17: ed. 2. 49. 1901.
Plants robust, erect from a creeping rootstock, 0.5-1 meter high; culms solitary or few in a tuft, simple or branching at the base only, the nodes densely bearded, rarely visible; leafsheaths overlapping, loose, densely, retrorsely, harshly villous; ligule densely ciliate, about 2 mm. long; blades 30-60 cm. long, 4^7 mm. wide, tapering from a flat base to a long involutesetaceous point, retrorsely strigose to nearly glabrous on both surfaces; panicles short-exserted, equaled or exceeded by the upper blades, 25-30 cm. long, about half as wide, rather manyflowered, the glabrous to pilose, slender, flexuous branches ascending, producing spikeletbearing branchlets along the upper half to two thirds of their length; spikelets short-pediceled, 6-7 mm. long, about 2 mm. wide, and as much as 4 mm. thick, ovate, densely silveryto tawnyvillous, strongly nerved but the nerves obscured by the pubescence; first glume clasping, two thirds to nearly as long as the spikelet, sparsely villous or glabrescent toward the acuminate apex; second glume slightly longer and more pointed than the sterile lemma, both exceeding the fruit, the lemma inclosing a villous palea of equal length and a staminate flower; fruit 4.2-4.5 mm. long, about 1.6 mm. wide, the margins of the lemma clothed with long white hairs, otherwise smooth and shining.
Type; locality: Chile.
Distribution: Southern Arizona and California; also in Chile and Argentina.