Panicum virgatum - (image 1 of 4)
Taxonomy
Family: Poaceae
Habitat
Open woods, prairies, savannas, dunes, shores, and calcareous or brackish marshes.
Associates
Distribution
Nova Scotia and Quebec west to Manitoba and MT, south to AZ, Mexico, and the West Indies.
Morphology
Erect perennial to 2 m from hard, scaly rhizomes. Ligule a dense area of silky hairs; leaf blades to 50 cm long and 1.5 cm wide, glabrous or pilose near the base. Inflorescence an open, pyramidal, freely branched panicle, to 40 cm; spikelets ovoid, often more than 3.8 mm long, symmetrically set on long pedicels, becoming widened distally by spreading of the glumes and sterile lemma, to 5.6 mm; first glume more than 1.8 mm long; second glume and sterile lemma subequal, conspicuously veined, acute to long-acuminate.
Notes
Flowers late June to early October.
Wetland indicator: Facultative +
A common component of tall-grass prairies. Highly variable.
References
Gleason, Henry A. and A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. Second Ed.
The New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, NY
Swink, F. and G.
Wilhelm. 1994. Plants of the Chicago Region.
Indiana Academy of Science. The Morton Arboretum. Lisle, Illinois.
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Michael Hough © 2009 |