Northeast Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Dichanthelium latifolium (L.) Harvill
- Family: Grass (Gramineae)
- Flowering: May-September
- Field Marks: Of all the species of this genus with leaves at least one inch wide, this is the only one with large, hairy spikelets at least 1/6 inch long and with hairs without swollen bases on the leaf sheaths.
- Habitat: Dry, often rocky woods.
- Habit: Perennial herb from a thickened crown.
- Stems: Upright, unbranched, up to 3 feet tall, smooth or sparsely hairy.
- Leaves: Elongated, flat, up to 1 3/4 inches wide, usually smooth except for cilia near the base; sheaths smooth or sparsely hairy; ligules minute.
- Flowers: Borne in spikelets in panicles up to 6 inches long; spikelets 1-flowered, ovoid, rounded to slightly pointed at the tip, about 1/6 inch long, sparsely hairy.
- Sepals: 0.
- Petals: 0.
- Stamens: 3.
- Pistils: Ovary superior, smooth.
- Fruits: Ellipsoid, with a minute point at the tip.
- Notes: Gleason and Cronquist call this species Panicum latifolium in the Poaceae. This grass has distinct vernal and autumnal phases. The vernal phase is described above. The autumnal phase has the panicles either completely or partially hidden.
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