Paspalum coryphaeum

Trin.
Common names: Emperor paspalum
Introduced
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 25. Treatment on page 586.

Plants perennial; cespitose, not rhizomatous. Culms 65-400 cm, erect; nodes pilose. Sheaths papillose-hirsute (upper sheaths sometimes glabrous); ligules 1-4.5 mm; blades 30-50 cm long, 10-23 mm wide, flat, with long hairs behind the ligules, otherwise glabrous or puberulent adaxially. Panicles terminal, with (6)15-44 racemosely arranged branches; branches 5-13 cm, straight, spreading to reflexed, rarely merely divergent; branch axes 0.3-0.4 mm wide, narrowly winged, glabrous, margins scabrous, pubescent, terminating in a spikelet. Spikelets 2-2.5 mm long, 1.8-1.9 mm wide, paired, divergent to spreading from the branch axes, elliptic, brown to stramineous, often purple-tinged. Lower glumes usually absent, if present, to 0.9 mm, triangular; upper glumes smooth, papillose-hirsute, 3-veined; lower lemmas smooth, papillose-hirsute or glabrous, 3-veined; upper florets white. 2n = 20, 40, 60.

Discussion

Paspalum coryphaeum is native from Costa Rica and the Caribbean south to northern South America. In the Flora region, it grows in disturbed habitats at scattered southeastern locations.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.