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.