Panicum parvifolium Lam.

Panicum parvifolium Lam. Tab. Encyc. 1: 173. 1791
Panicum brasiliense Spreng. Syst. 1: 321. 1825;
Panicum ascendens Willd.; Spreng. Syst. 1: 321, as synonym. 1825.
Panicum oplismenoides Nash, Bull. Torrey Club 30: 381 . 1903. Not P. oplismenoides Hack. 1888.
Plants perennial, cespitose, decumbent or creeping, rooting at the lower nodes, glaucous and glabrous throughout, or more or less pubescent; culms slender, branching, 20-80 cm. long, leafy, with numerous short internodes, these and the nodes sometimes sparsely pilose; leaf-sheaths rarely more than 1 cm. long, ciliate, and sometimes, especially on young shoots, sparsely or even densely pilose; ligule nearly obsolete; blades 1-3 cm. long, 2-6 mm. wide, oblong-lanceolate, rounded or subcordate at base, spreading or reflexed, or the upper and often those of young shoots appressed, sometimes sparsely pilose at the base, or rarely pilose on both surfaces; panicles short-exserted, 2-4 cm., rarely 6 cm. long, about as wide, loosely flowered, the slender, flexuous branches spreading, the branchlets and pedicels divergent; spikelets about 1.5 mm. long, 0.8 mm. wide, turgid, blunt, glabrous; first glume slightly more than half the length of the spikelet, subacute, 3-nerved; second glume and sterile lemma subequal, 5-nerved, the sterile palea nearly as long as its lemma; fruit 1.4 mm. long, 0.8 mm. wide, ovate, smooth and shining.
Type locality: Tropical America.
Distribution: Costa Rica and the West Indies to Paraguay.

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems trailing, spreading or prostrate, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems geniculate, decumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at nodes, 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, 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 lanceolate, Leaf blades ovate, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Leaf blades more or less hairy, Leaf blades scabrous, roughened, or wrinkled, Ligule present, Ligule a fringed, ciliate, or lobed 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, Glum es 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.