Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Section: Common Name: Scientific Name: Family:
Account for Thin Paspalum - Paspalum setaceum var. ciliatifolium   (Michaux) Vasey
Members of Poaceae:
Members of Paspalum with account distribution info or public map:
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Section 5 » Family Poaceae
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Author(Michaux) Vasey
DistributionLower Piedmont, Sandhills, Coastal Plain, and Outer Banks; scattered records westward.

NJ to KS, south to FL and TX.
AbundanceFrequent in the Coastal Plain and lower Piedmont; rare in the upper Piedmont and Mountains.
HabitatDry hardwood-pine woodlands, Longleaf Pine-oak woodlands and savannas, woodland openings, clearings, roadsides, powerlines.
PhenologyFlowering and fruiting June-September.
IdentificationPlants in the P. setaceum group usually grow 1.5-2.5 feet tall, with several well-spaced stem leaves and several +- crowded basal leaves. This variety features +- hairless leaf surfaces, but distinctly pilose margins. It is the most widespread variety in NC and the one most likely to be encountered. In some populations, many individual plants produce only a single terminal spike.
Taxonomic CommentsPaspalum 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 stalklets. Care must be taken with a hand lens to make sure there are 2 stalklets at each node, as frequently one of the two spikelets will not grow. Non-paired or single spikelets will clearly have only a single stalklet per node.
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Global RankG5T5
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B.A. SorrieRoadside in Piedmont NE of Carthage, 8 Oct 2024. Note erect solitary spike. MoorePhoto_natural
B.A. SorrieSandhills Game Land, dam of Kinney Cameron Lake, June 2015.
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