Panicum

• 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 L.

• Description

  Genus Description - Spikelets with one perfect terminal fl, lanceolate or fusiform to ovoid, obovoid, or globose, usually somewhat compressed dorsiventrally and biconvex; first glume very short or minute and usually scarious or membranous, or in some spp. nearly as long as the second; second glume about as long as the spikelet, herbaceous, green or colored, often prominently nerved; sterile lemma similar to the second glume, enclosing a palea and sometimes a staminate fl; fertile lemma indurate, usually white or pale and smooth or shining, veinless (or sometimes with 5–7 evident veins at full maturity), the margins inrolled over the edges of the indurate or membranous palea, the apex typically obtuse; ligule in most spp. a band of hairs, or obsolete; spikelets usually small, in panicles or spike-like racemes. 500, cosmop. (Dichanthelium) The spp. of subg. Dichanthelium, and especially spp. 21–34, form an intergrading group in which the taxonomic limits are difficult to discern and are still debatable. The flag-lf referred to in the descriptions of some spp. of subg. Dichanthelium is the uppermost lf of the culm.

• Common Names

  panic-grass