Paspalum laeve

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Common Names: field paspalum[1], field crowngrass[2]

Paspalum laeve
Paspalum laeve AFP.jpg
Photo by Keith Bradley hosted at Atlas of Florida Plants
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants
Class: Liliopsida - Moncots
Order: Poales
Family: Poaceae
Genus: Paspalum
Species: P. laeve
Binomial name
Paspalum laeve
Michx.
PASP LAEV DIST.JPG
Natural range of Paspalum laeve from USDA NRCS Plants Database.

Taxonomic Notes

Synonyms: P. circulare Nash; P. longipilum (Nash).[3]

Variety: Paspalum laeve Michaux var. circulare (Nash) Stone; Paspalum laeve Michaux var. laeve.[3]

Description

P. laeve is a cespitose, perennial graminoid of the Poaceae family that is native to North America.[1] It's culms are 3-7.5 dm tall with glabrous nodes and internodes. Blades are 20 cm long, 1-10 mm wide, and have a papillose-pilose texture. The sheaths are papillose-pilose as well, with ciliate margins and 2 mm long ligules. There are 2-3 racemes are racemose, spreading, 3-7 mm long, 1 mm wide, and have a scaberulous rachis wing. Growing in 2 rows, the spikelets are orbicular and 2.5-3 mm broad with scaberulous pedicels.

Distribution

P. laeve is found throughout the southeastern United States, reaching as far north as New York and Michigan, and as far west as Texas and Kansas.[1]

Ecology

Habitat

This perennial grass is commonly found on forest edges and disturbed areas.[4] Specimens have been collected from habitats that include moist loamy sands at the edges of a pond, grassy slopes of a roadside ditch, open pine/oak flatwoods, coastal hammocks, open swamp margins, dried up pond bottoms, wet sands od a marsh, small swale, wiregrass palmetto flatwoods, cypress pond, low field, and old pasture.[5]

The grass has an intermediate level of shade and drought tolerance.[1]

Phenology

P. laeve flowers from June through August.[6]

Fire ecology

Populations of Paspalum laeve have been known to persist through repeated annual burning.[7]

Conservation, cultivation, and restoration

Cultural use

Photo Gallery

References and notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 USDA Plant Database
  2. Orzell, S. L. and E. L. Bridges (2006). "Floristic composition of the south-central Florida dry prairie landscape." Florida Ecosystem 1(3): 123-133.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Weakley, A.S. 2015. Flora of the southern and mid-atlantic states. Working Draft of 21 May 2015. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
  4. Weakley, A. S. (2015). Flora of the Southern and Mid-Atlantic States. Chapel Hill, NC, University of North Carolina Herbarium.
  5. URL: http://herbarium.bio.fsu.edu. Last accessed: June 2018. Collectors: Loran C. Anderson, Wilson Baker, R.K. Godfrey, R. Kral, P.L. Redfearn, Sidney McDaniel, William Adams, C.V. Piper, R.A. Pursell, D.L. Martin, S. T. Cooper, A.H. Curtis, Allen Shuey, R. Norris, Cecil Slaughter, John B. Nelson, Steve Bennett, P. Ferral, A. Williams, Danielle Dodier. States and counties: Florida (Wakulla, Jackson, Bay, Liberty, Nassau, Taylor, Okaloosa, Brevard, Escambia, Madison, Leon, Charlotte, Jefferson, Marion, Manatee, Duval, Calhoun, Washington) Georgia (Clinch, Charlton, Thomas) South Carolina (Berkeley) Texas (Madison)
  6. Nelson, G. PanFlora: Plant data for the eastern United States with emphasis on the Southeastern Coastal Plains, Florida, and the Florida Panhandle. www.gilnelson.com/PanFlora/ Accessed: 24 MAY 2018
  7. Platt, W.J., R. Carter, G. Nelson, W. Baker, S. Hermann, J. Kane, L. Anderson, M. Smith, K. Robertson. 2021. Unpublished species list of Wade Tract old-growth longleaf pine savanna, Thomasville, Georgia.