Texas Signalgrass

Panicum texanum Buckl. Prel. Rep. Geol. & Agr. Surv. Tex. App
3. 1866.
Plants erect or ascending, often decumbent and rooting at the lower nodes, branching from the base and commonly from the lower and middle nodes; culms stout, 50-150 cm. high, or in robust specimens as much as 3 meters high, softly pubescent at least below the nodes and below the panicles; leaf-sheaths softly pubescent, often papillose, densely ciliate, the lower shorter than the internodes, the upper usually overlapping; ligule about 1 mm, long; blades ascending or spreading, 8-20 cm. long, 7-15 mm. wide, rounded at the base, softly pubescent on both surfaces, often finely papillose; panicles finally exserted, 8-20 cm. long, 1-3 cm. wide, the main axis much exceeding the erect branches, the axes densely clothed with short pubescence having long, stiff hairs intermixed, the short-pediceled spikelets somewhat crowded; spikelets 5-6 mm. long, about 2 mm. wide, fusiform, pointed, short-attenuate at base, pilose; first glume clasping, more than half the length of the spikelet, acute, 3-5-nerved; second glume and sterile lemma exceeding the fruit, 5-nerved, often obscurely reticulate; fruit 3.7-3.8 mm. long, about
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2 mm. wide, elliptic, apiculate.
Type I/OCAlity: Austin, Texas. Distribution: Texas and northern Mexico.

Annuals, 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, 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 hairy, hispid or prickly, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades 1-2 cm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blades more or less hairy, Ligule present, Ligule a fringed, ciliate, or lobed membrane, Ligule a fringe of hairs, I nflorescence terminal, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence a panicle with narrowly racemose or spicate branches, Inflorescence branches more than 10 to numerous, Inflorescence branches 1-sided, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets sessile or subsessile, 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 paired at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating below the glumes, Spikelets secund, in rows on one side of rachis, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes distinctly unequal, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glume surface hairy, villous or pilose, Glumes 4-7 nerved, Glumes 8-15 nerved, Lemma coriaceous, firmer or thicker in text ure than the glumes, Lemma becoming indurate, enclosing palea and caryopsis, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma apex acute or acuminate, Lemma awnless, Lemma mucronate, very shortly beaked or awned, less than 1-2 mm, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea longer than lemma, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis.