| Section 5 » Order Cyperales » Family Poaceae |
Show/Hide Synonym
| taxonName | relationship | relatedTaxonName | relatedTaxonRefText | relComments |
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| Dichanthelium aciculare | = | Panicum aciculare | Fernald (1950) | | | Dichanthelium aciculare | = | Panicum aciculare | Gleason (1952) | | | Dichanthelium aciculare | = | Panicum aciculare | Radford, Ahles, and Bell (1968) | | | Dichanthelium aciculare | < | Panicum aciculare | Gleason and Cronquist (1991) | | | Dichanthelium aciculare | = | Dichanthelium aciculare ssp. aciculare | Flora of North America (1993b, 1997, 2000, 2002a, 2002b, 2003a, 2004b, 2005, 2006a, 2006b, 2006c, 2007a, 2009, 2010) | | | Dichanthelium aciculare | > | Panicum aciculare | Hitchcock & Chase (Manual of US Grasses) | | | Dichanthelium aciculare | > | Panicum aciculare | Small (1933, 1938) | | | Dichanthelium aciculare | > | Panicum bennettense | Hitchcock & Chase (Manual of US Grasses) | | | Dichanthelium aciculare | > | Panicum bennettense | Small (1933, 1938) | | | Dichanthelium aciculare | < | Dichanthelium aciculare | Kartesz (1999) | | | Dichanthelium aciculare | < | Dichanthelium aciculare | Thomas (2008). The treatment of Dichanthelium sect. Lanuginosa (=D. acuminatum group) is based cl | | | Source: Weakley's Flora |
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| Author | (Desvaux ex Poiret) Gould & Clark | |
| Distribution | Coastal Plain and Piedmont. The map does not reflect the recent split from D. aciculare of D. filiramum (which see). Specimens of D. aciculare sensu stricto, annotated by R. LeBlond, occur in Anson, Dare (Roanoke Island), Greene, Hoke, Moore, Pamlico, Richmond, Robeson, Scotland, and Union counties. Specimens of D. "aciculare" from elsewhere need to be re-examined.
Southern NJ to MO and OK, south to FL and TX. | |
| Abundance | Frequent in most of the Coastal Plain; uncommon to infrequent in the Piedmont. | |
| Habitat | Dry to xeric, poor sandy soil of pine-oak sandhills, Carolina bay rims, roadsides, powerlines, old fields. | |
| Phenology | Flowering and fruiting May-October. As with most witchgrasses, there are 2 distinct flowering periods: a vernal period and an autumnal period. | |
| Identification | This species is one foot or less tall, with slender leaves which usually are inrolled for much of their length -- making them look "needle-like", as the common name describes. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | Careful work by Richard LeBlond has elevated the various subspecies of D. aciculare in FNA to full species status.
A note about Dichanthelium: This genus is not impossible to identify to species! But it takes applied effort over a period of time in order to learn the various species and what their morphological limits are. We strongly recommend that you read the introduction to the treatment in Weakley et al. (2023), written by Richard LeBlond. LeBlond has made order out of near chaos, and his keys work very well for our plants. Most Dichanthelium taxa ("Dichs") do not grow everywhere indiscrimminately, but prefer certain well-defined habitats. Note that most species produce flowers/fruits twice a year -- a vernal period and an autumnal period -- and that measurements of spikelets and achenes are taken from vernal plants. Some species also have a third, or summer, period. In the vernal period there is a single inflorescence at the tip of the stem. In the autumnal period, plants produce elongate branches with bunched (congested) leaves and so look quite different from vernal plants. Inflorescences are produced in leaf axils as well as at the tips of branches. NOTE: Older texts had these species essentially all within the very large genus Panicum. "Dich" species are typically named as "Witchgrass" and Panicum species named as "Panicgrass". | |
| Other Common Name(s) | Needleleaf Rosette Grass is more often used than Needleleaf Witchgrass, but this website and Weakley (2018) prefer to used Witchgrass as the group name. | |
| State Rank | S4? [S5] | |
| Global Rank | G5 | |
| State Status | | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | FACU link |
| USACE-emp | FACU link |
