Paspalum paniculatum L.

Perennial; culms densely tufted, 0.3 to more than 2 m. high, coarse, leafy, erect or ascending, sometimes decumbent at the base and rooting at the lower nodes, finally branching, the nodes glabrous to conspicuously bearded with stiff ascend-ing hairs; sheaths mostly longer than the internodes, keeled, papillose-hispid, some-times only on the collar and along the mar-gins, colored orange-brown on the inner surface; ligule 1-3 mm. long; blades 9-50 cm. long, 6-25 mm. wide, usually rounded at the base, densely hispid on both surfaces to nearly glabrous, with a tuft of long hairs on each side at the base, the margins scabrous, more or less hispid-ciliate; inflorescence 5-30 cm. long, composed of 7-60 approximate, solitary or somewhat fascicled racemes, the lower ones 4-12 cm. long, ascending or arcuate-spreading; spikelets paired, 1.3-1.5 mm. long, densely crowded, the glume and sterile lemma equal, barely covering the fruit, softly pubescent, the sterile lemma woolly pubescent only on the margins; fruit about as large as the spikelet, smooth and shining.