Plant Guide > Grasses > Slender Paspalum Grass

Slender Paspalum Grass

Slender Paspalum GrassPaspalum setaceum Michx.

Paspalums are characteristic grasses of the Southern States, and in warm countries take the place of the abundant Fescues and Bent-grasses of Northern fields. There are many species, some tall and stout, and others low and spreading, rooting at the joints and carpeting the ground with a dense growth.

Two species only are common in the North, and these, the Slender Paspalum and the Field Paspalum, are low-growing grasses which do not bloom until midsummer and later. The plump flowers are borne in very narrow, one-sided spikes which even before blooming seem beaded with ripened seed.

Slender Paspalum. Paspalum setaceum Michx.

Perennial.

Stem 1-2 ft. tall, slender, erect or spreading. Ligule short. Leaves and sheaths hairy, leaves 3'-7' long, 1"-3" wide, flat.

Spike 2'-4' long, 1-sided, very slender, usually solitary on a long peduncle, additional solitary spikes on shorter peduncles from the sheaths of upper leaves; spikelets 1-flowered, green, about 3/4" long, round on outer surface, flat on inner surface. Scales 3. Stamens 3.

Dry fields. July to September.

Massachusetts to Nebraska, south to Florida and Texas.