Panicum verrucosum

Panicum verrucosum
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants
Class:	Liliopsida – Monocotyledons
Order:	Cyperales
Family:	Poaceae ⁄ Gramineae
Genus:	Panicum
Species:	P. verrucosum
Binomial name
Panicum verrucosum Muhl.
Natural range of Panicum verrucosum from USDA NRCS Plants Database.

Description

Common name: warty panicgrass

Panicum verrucosum is an annual graminoid species (Kirkman and Sharitz 1994).

Ecology

Habitat

P. verrucosum occurs in moist to wet, sandy or loamy soils, including sandy loam, loamy sand, and sandy peat (FSU Herbarium). It can be found in pine-wiregrass savannas, wooded floodplains, pond pine-titi peat swamps, sandhills, cabbage palm-mixed hardwood hammocks, and bordering bodies of water, including Cypress-gum ponds, lakes, Hypericum bogs, and ephemeral depression marshes (FSU Herbarium). Furthermore, this species appears in some disturbed areas, including near trails and borrow pits, and in ditches, clear-cuts, and power line corridors (FSU Herbarium).

Phenology

Flowering and fruiting have been observed in June, September, October, and December (FSU Herbarium).

Seed bank and germination

The species showed a significant increase in abundance after tilling (soil disturbance), and was abundant in seed banks (Kirkman and Sharitz 1994).

Fire ecology

P. verrucosum is found in cut-burned areas of a Chamaecyparis thyoides stand in the Great Dismal Swamp (McKinley et al. 1979).

References and notes

Florida State University Robert K. Godfrey Herbarium database. URL: http://herbarium.bio.fsu.edu. Last accessed: June 2014.

Collectors: Loran C. Anderson, John B. Nelson, Sidney McDaniel, L. J. Brass, Paul O. Schallert, R. Kral, R.K. Godfrey, James P. Gillespie, Angus Gholson, A. H. Curtiss, D. B. Ward, J. Hunter, F. S. Ward, Cecil Slaughter, R. A. Norris, and R. Komarek.

States and Counties: Florida: Alachua, Baker, Calhoun, Duval, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf, Highlands, Jefferson, Lafayette, Leon, Liberty, Nassau, Okaloosa, Osceola, Putnam, Seminole, Taylor, Wakulla, and Walton. Georgia: Atkinson, Grady, and Thomas.

McKinley, C. E. and F. P. Day (1979). "Herbaceous production in cut-burned, uncut-burned and control areas of chamaecyparis thyoides (L.) BSP (Cupressaceae) stand in the Great Dismal Swamp." Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 106: 20-28.

Kirkman, L. K. and R. R. Sharitz (1994). "Vegetation disturbance and maintenance of diversity in intermittently flooded Carolina bays in South Carolina." Ecological Applications 4: 177-188.