| Author | (Fluegge) A.S. Hitchcock | |
| Distribution | Coastal Plain, westward in the Piedmont to counties on the SC border (to Gaston County); apparently not in the Sandhills.
MD to FL, TX, and AR; Coastal Plain and Piedmont. | |
| Abundance | Uncommon to rare in Piedmont; frequent in Coastal Plain. | |
| Habitat | Roadsides, sandy woodlands, lake- and impoundment shores, margin of pond within maritime forest (Dare County). Quite varied habitats, yet nonetheless not at all numerous despite such broad habitats occupied. | |
| Phenology | Flowering and fruiting July-October. | |
| Identification | Big Carpetgrass is more-or-less mat-forming from slender horizontal rhizomes. The stems are erect, 1-3 feet tall (where not mown), topped by an inflorescence of 2 (-4) ascending to spreading, narrow branches, with the spikelets tightly pressed to the branches. Sometimes it also has an additional inflorescence from a leaf axil lower down on the stem. Axonopus fissifolius is very similar, but the spikelets of Big Carpetgrass are 3.5-5.5 mm long (vs. 1.6-2.8 mm long in A. fissifolius). Paspalum vaginatum superficially is very similar, but its leaves are arranged in 2 ranks (vs. several ranks in Big Carpetgrass) and its spikelets are only 2.5-3 mm long. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | None
| |
| Other Common Name(s) | None | |
| State Rank | S3 | |
| Global Rank | G5 | |
| State Status | | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | OBL link |
| USACE-emp | FACW link |
