Paspalum praecox

Paspalum praecox
Photo by Guy Anglin, Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants
Class:	Liliopsida – Monocotyledons
Order:	Cyperales
Family:	Poaceae ⁄ Gramineae
Genus:	Paspalum
Species:	P. praecox
Binomial name
Paspalum praecox Walter
Natural range of Paspalum praecox from USDA NRCS Plants Database.

Common name: Early paspalum

Description

"Annuals or perennials. Leaves primarily basal and low cauline; blade margins usually scaberulous; ligules membranous. Spikelets plano-convex, terminal floret fertile, basal floret sterile. Frist glume usually absent, sterile lemma resembles 2nd glume; fertile lemma and paleas indurate, lustrous, yellowish or brownish. These plants are all important forage grasses." - Radford et al 1964

"Erect perennial from short rhizomes; culms 6-9 dm tall, nodes and internodes glabrous. Blades to 20 cm long, 1.5-4 mm wide, glabrous or villous on both surfaces, occasionally pilose basally above; sheaths glabrous, villous or sparsely papillose above, margins smooth; ligules 2-2.5 mm long. Racemes 3-5, racemose, ascending, 2-6 cm long; rachis wing scaberulous, 1-1.2 mm wide. Spikelets broadly obovoid to suborbicular, flattish, 2.2-3.2 mm long, in 4 rows, 2 rows rudimentary; pedicels scaberulous angled, 0.1-1 mm long. Second glume and sterile lemmas 3-nerved, yellowish green , margins scarious, obtuse 2.2-3.2 mm long; fertile lemma and palea nerveless, papillose, obtuse, 2.2-3.2 mm long. Grain brownish, broadly ellipsoid, flat, 2 mm long." - Radford et al 1964

Ecology

Habitat

This species has been found growing in open areas of longleaf and slash pine in wet, sandy and peaty soils (FSU Herbarium). It has also been found in moist, loose, and loamy sands of ditches along trails within pine plantations (FSU Herbarium). Associated species include Andropogon, Sorghastrum, and Pinus palustris (FSU Herbarium).

Phenology

This species has been observed flowering in July and fruiting in October (FSU Herbarium).

Fire ecology

This species can be found in burned, open longleaf pine areas (FSU Herbarium).

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, Wilson Baker, Ann F. Johnson, Robert K. Godfrey, R. Komarek, Travis MacClendon, and Karen MacClendon. States and Counties: Florida: Calhoun, Dixie, Liberty, and Wakulla. Georgia: Thomas.

Radford, Albert E., Harry E. Ahles, and C. Ritchie Bell. Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas. 1964, 1968. The University of North Carolina Press. 136. Print.