| Author | L. | |
| Distribution | Mostly the outer Coastal Plain and Outer Banks/barrier islands; scattered records inland. The Madison County record is from the French Broad River.
Mostly Coastal Plain, NJ to FL and TX; also NM, AZ, CA, NV, OR, WA; around much of the globe. | |
| Abundance | Frequent in the outer Coastal Plain and Outer Banks/barrier islands, rare to uncommon elsewhere into the central Piedmont; very rare westward, with just one known Mountain record. The website editors suggest a State Rank of S3S4. | |
| Habitat | Margins of brackish marshes, interdune marshes, waterfowl impoundments, shores of reservoirs, river shores. | |
| Phenology | Flowering and fruiting July-October. | |
| Identification | This species is one of the few perennial crowngrasses in NC whose stems are often lazy and lie close to the ground. The lower stem nodes may take root. The inflorescence is composed of a single pair of branches. The state rare P. vaginatum may also grow similarly, but its leaves are 2-ranked (vs. spirally arranged around the stem in P. distichum) and has larger spikelets (3-4 mm long vs. 2.5-3 mm long in this species). | |
| Taxonomic Comments | Despite its very wide global range, there seem to be no subspecies or varieties named.
Paspalum is a genus of more than 300 species, found mostly in the New World. The genus is quite easily identified by the neat row of spikelets along each side of a flattened rachis (inflorescence branch), and also by the hemispherical outline of each spikelet. In some species there are only 2 such inflorescence branches, paired at the stem summit; in most of our species there are 3-4 branches; and in a few there may be many. Keys ask whether spikelets are paired or not -- that is, at each node on each side of the rachis there are pairs of spikelets on tiny stalks. Care must be taken with a hand lens to make sure there are 2 stalks at each node, as frequently one of the two spikelets will not grow. Non-paired or single spikelets will clearly have only a single stalk per node. | |
| Other Common Name(s) | Water Finger-grass, and a few other poorly used names | |
| State Rank | S3? [S3S4] | |
| Global Rank | G5 | |
| State Status | | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | OBL link |
| USACE-emp | FACW link |
