Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Section: Common Name: Scientific Name: Family:
Account for Thin Paspalum - Paspalum setaceum var. setaceum   Michaux
Members of Poaceae:
Members of Paspalum with account distribution info or public map:
USDA
Flora of SE USGoogle Images
Section 5 » Family Poaceae
Show/Hide Synonym
AuthorMichaux
DistributionCoastal Plain and Sandhills; scarce in lower Piedmont; scarce in low elevations in the Mountains.

Mostly Coastal Plain, MA to FL and TX; also inland to western VA, western NC, MO, and AR; Cuba.
AbundanceFrequent in the Coastal Plain and Sandhills, especially where maintained by fire; rare elsewhere.
HabitatDry to xeric Longleaf Pine-Wiregrass-oak uplands, sandhills, and bay rims; dry savannas, dry interdune swales, roadsides.
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 hairy leaf surfaces and margins and very small spikelets (1.7-2.0 mm long). It is the most readily found variety in longleaf pinelands.
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 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)
State Rank[S4S5]
Global RankG5T5
State Status
US Status
USACE-agcp
USACE-emp
County Map - click on a county to view source of record.
Photo Gallery
photographercommentsphoto_linkcountyobsType
B.A. SorrieSandhills Game Land, dam of Kinney Cameron Lake, June 2015. Var. setaceum. ScotlandPhoto_natural
Select a source
AllHerbaria
Individual
Select an occurrence type
AllCollection_naturalPhoto_natural