Bolivian Panicgrass

Panicum boliviense Hack. Repert. Sp. Nov. 11: 19
Plants perennial," with long decumbent or creeping bases, rooting and branching at the lower nodes; flowering culms ascending, 0.5-1.5 meters high, glabrous, the nodes glabrous; leaf-sheaths short, glabrous below, usually hirsute toward the summit, especially at the juncture with the blade, the margins ciliate; ligule a ciliate membrane about 0.5 mm. long; blades flat, 8-15 cm. long, 1-2 cm. wide, gradually narrowed from the cordate-clasping base to an acuminate apex, ciliate at base, otherwise glabrous, obscurely cross-nerved between the veins, the margins scabrous; panicles usually short-exserted, 10-25 cm. long, one third to one half as wide, the solitary or fascicled branches increasingly approximate toward the summit of the slender angled scabrous axis, usually pilose in the axils, the lowermost branch solitary and remote, all but the uppermost compound, the branchlets somewhat spike-like, rather distant, usually along the lower side of the rachis, the axils pilose; spikelets subsessile, clustered, 1.5-1.6 mm. long, about 0.7 mm. wide, turgid, the first glume nearly half the length of the spikelet, the second glume and sterile lemma equal, the sterile lemma somewat inflated, subtending a membranaceous palea; fruit 1.4 mm. long, 0.6 mm. wide, subacute.
Type locality: Antahuacana, Bolivia. Distribution: Cuba; southern Mexico to Paraguay.

Panicum polygonatum Schrad.; Schultes, in R. & S. Syst. Veg
Mant. 2: 256. 1824.
Panicum potamium Trin. Gram. Pan. 239. 1826.
Panicum hydrophilum Trin.; Nees, Agrost. Bras. 208, as synonym. 1829.
Setaria polygonata Kunth, Rev. Gram. 47. 1829.
Panicum trichogonum Willd.; Steud. Norn. ed. 2. 2: 261, as synonym 1841.
Panicum pilosum polygonatum Doeil, in Mart. Fl. Bras. 2 2 : 211. 1877.
Panicum Bourgaei Fourn. Mex. PI. Gram. 25. 1886.
Plants rather freely branching from the lower nodes, widely spreading from a decumbent
or creeping base, rooting at the nodes; culms 20-100 cm. long, the nodes densely pubescent;
leaf-sheaths shorter than the internodes or sometimes nearly equal, densely ciliate, otherwise
glabrous or hirsute toward the summit; ligule less than 0.5 mm. long; blades ascending or
spreading, oblong-lanceolate, 3-13 cm. long, 8-15 mm. wide, usually ciliate at the cordate base,
otherwise glabrous or occasionally sparsely hirsute; panicles 7-20 cm. long, about half as wide,
the lower branches solitary, distant, spreading, the upper sometimes in pairs, the numerous
raceme-like branchlets secund from the lower side of the branches, the somewhat clustered,
short-pedicled spikelets also secund on the branchlets, the rachises sparsely pilose with long,
weak hairs, or sometimes glabrous; spikelets 1.4-1.5 mm. long, 0.5 mm. wide, not thickened, pointed; first glume about half the length of the spikelet, 3-nerved, acute; second glume and sterile lemma equal, 3-5 -nerved, exceeding the fruit, the sterile palea only about half the length of its lemma; fruit 1 mm. long, 0.5 mm. wide, obovate.
Type locality: On the Ilheos River, Brazil. Distribution: Southern Mexico to Paraguay.

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems geniculate, decumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at nodes, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stems branching above base or distally at nodes, Stem nodes bearded or hairy, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems with inflorescence 1-2 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath hairy at summit, throat, or collar, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades lanceolate, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades 1-2 cm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blade margins folded, involute, or conduplicate, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Leaf blades scabrous, roughened, or wrinkled, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence an open panicle, openly paniculate, branches spreading, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence branches more than 10 to numerous, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets dorsally compressed or terete, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 1 fertile floret, Spikelets with 2 florets, Spikelet with 1 fertile floret and 1-2 sterile florets, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating below the glumes, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes distinctly unequal, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glume equal to or longer than spikelet, Glumes 3 nerved, Glumes 4-7 nerved, Lemma similar in texture to glumes, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma apex truncate, rounded, or obtuse, Lemma awnless, Lemma margins inrolled, tightly covering palea and caryopsis, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea about equal to lemma, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear.