Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Section: Common Name: Scientific Name: Family:
Account for Thin Paspalum - Paspalum setaceum var. rigidifolium   (Nash) D.J. Banks
Members of Poaceae:
Members of Paspalum with account distribution info or public map:
USDA
Flora of SE USGoogle Images
Section 5 » Family Poaceae
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Author(Nash) D.J. Banks
DistributionWeakley (2025) considers it as rare in the Coastal Plain, and not found elsewhere in NC. This record is apparently based on the account and map of P. rigidifolium in Hitchcock and Chase (1950). H&C did not cite a specimen or county, so the map below must remain blank for now.

NC to FL on the coastal plain; Cuba.
AbundanceVery rare, perhaps extirpated in NC.
Habitat"Sand barrens and high pineland"--H&C.
Phenology
IdentificationLeaf blades are glabrous, stiff, and no more than 6 mm wide. Spikelets are 2.2-2.4 mm long (thus longer than var. ciliatifolium.
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[S1?]
Global RankG5TNR
State Status[W7]
US Status
USACE-agcp
USACE-emp
County Map - click on a county to view source of record.