GrassBase - The Online World Grass Flora

Descriptions

W.D. Clayton, M. Vorontsova, K.T. Harman & H. Williamson

© Copyright The Board of Trustees, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Paspalum scrobiculatum

HABIT Perennial; mat forming, or caespitose. Culms erect, or geniculately ascending; 10–150 cm long; 1–6 mm diam.; 2–17 -noded; without nodal roots, or rooting from lower nodes. Leaf-sheaths mostly shorter than adjacent culm internode. Ligule an eciliate membrane. Leaf-blade base simple. Leaf-blades 5–40 cm long; 3–15 mm wide. Leaf-blade apex attenuate; filiform.

INFLORESCENCE Inflorescence composed of racemes.

Racemes 1–20; digitate, or borne along a central axis; unilateral; 2–15 cm long. Central inflorescence axis 0–8 cm long. Rhachis broadly winged; with sharp-edged midrib; 1–2.5 mm wide. Spikelet packing abaxial; regular; 2 -rowed.

Spikelets solitary. Fertile spikelets pedicelled. Pedicels oblong.

FERTILE SPIKELETS Spikelets comprising 1 basal sterile florets; 1 fertile florets; without rhachilla extension. Spikelets obovate, or orbicular; dorsally compressed; plano-convex; obtuse; 1.4–3 mm long; falling entire.

GLUMES Glumes one the lower absent or obscure; reaching apex of florets; thinner than fertile lemma. Upper glume elliptic; 1 length of spikelet; chartaceous; dark brown; without keels; 5–7 -veined. Upper glume apex obtuse.

FLORETS Basal sterile florets barren; without significant palea. Lemma of lower sterile floret similar to upper glume; elliptic; 1 length of spikelet; chartaceous; 3–5 -veined; obtuse. Fertile lemma elliptic, or orbicular; gibbous; indurate; dark brown; dull; without keel; 5 -veined. Lemma surface striate. Lemma margins involute. Lemma apex obtuse. Palea involute; indurate.

DISTRIBUTION Africa: Macaronesia, west tropical, west-central tropical, northeast tropical, east tropical, southern tropical, south, middle Atlantic ocean, and western Indian ocean. Asia-temperate: Arabia, China, and eastern Asia. Asia-tropical: India, Indo-China, Malesia, and Papuasia. Australasia: Australia and New Zealand. Pacific: southwestern, south-central, northwestern, and north-central. North America: northeast USA, south-central USA, and southeast USA. South America: Mesoamericana, Caribbean, northern South America, western South America, and Brazil.

NOTES Paniceae. FTEA.

Please cite this publication as detailed in How to Cite Version: 3rd February 2016.