Panicum capillare L.

• Authority

  Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

• Family

  Poaceae

• Scientific Name

  Panicum capillare L.

• Description

  Species Description - Coarse, rough-hairy annual to 7 dm, branched from the base, erect or ascending or in depauperate forms spreading; lvs 6–17 mm wide; panicles diffusely branched, sometimes two-thirds as long as the whole plant; axillary pulvini glabrous to evidently hairy; spikelets all or mostly on long pedicels, acute to acuminate, 1.8–3.5 mm, the first glume a third to half as long as the sterile lemma; fr stramineous, 1.4–2 mm, a third as wide; margins of the lemma distinctly inrolled, the visible part of the palea a third to half as wide as the fr; 2n=18. Dry or moist soil, often a weed in fields and gardens, widespread throughout most of the U.S. and s. Can. (P. barbipulvinatum; P. gattingeri)

• Common Names

  witch-grass