Difference between revisions of "Paspalum bifidum"

From Coastal Plain Plants Wiki
Jump to: navigation, search
Line 33: Line 33:
 
===Phenology=== <!--Timing off flowering, fruiting, seed dispersal, and environmental triggers.  Cite PanFlora website if appropriate: http://www.gilnelson.com/PanFlora/ -->
 
===Phenology=== <!--Timing off flowering, fruiting, seed dispersal, and environmental triggers.  Cite PanFlora website if appropriate: http://www.gilnelson.com/PanFlora/ -->
 
This species has been observed flowering and fruiting from August to October (FSU Herbarium).
 
This species has been observed flowering and fruiting from August to October (FSU Herbarium).
 
+
===Seed dispersal===
<!--===Seed dispersal===-->
+
According to Kay Kirkman, a plant ecologist, this species disperses by gravity. <ref name="KK"> Kay Kirkman, unpublished data, 2015. </ref>
 
<!--===Seed bank and germination===-->
 
<!--===Seed bank and germination===-->
 
<!--===Fire ecology===--> <!--Fire tolerance, fire dependence, adaptive fire responses-->
 
<!--===Fire ecology===--> <!--Fire tolerance, fire dependence, adaptive fire responses-->
Line 40: Line 40:
 
<!--===Use by animals===--> <!--Herbivory, granivory, insect hosting, etc.-->
 
<!--===Use by animals===--> <!--Herbivory, granivory, insect hosting, etc.-->
 
<!--===Diseases and parasites===-->
 
<!--===Diseases and parasites===-->
 +
 
==Conservation and Management==
 
==Conservation and Management==
 
==Cultivation and restoration==
 
==Cultivation and restoration==

Revision as of 15:58, 12 April 2016

Paspalum bifidum
Paspalum bifidum 1.jpg
Photo taken by Kevin Robertson
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants
Class: Liliopsida – Monocotyledons
Order: Cyperales
Family: Poaceae ⁄ Gramineae
Genus: Paspalum
Species: P. bifidum
Binomial name
Paspalum bifidum
(Bertol.) Nash
PASP BIFI dist.jpg
Natural range of Paspalum bifidum from USDA NRCS Plants Database.

Common name: Pitchfork crowngrass

Taxonomic notes

Synonyms: Paspalum bifidum var. bifidum; P. bifidum var. projectum Fernald

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

"Perennial form thick rhizome; culms 6-9 dm tall, nodes glabrous or appressed pubescent, internodes glabrous. Blades to 20 cm long, 3-15 mm wide, papillose-pilose to almost glabrous, margins usually ciliate; ligules 2-2.5 mm long. Racemes usually 3, racemose, ascending, 4-9 cm long; rachis triangular, wingless, scaberulous. Spikelets broadly ellipsoid, 3.5-3.8 mm long, basically in 4 rows but by abortion in 2 or 1; pedicels scaberulous angled, 1-3 mm long. Frist legume reduced, rounded, 0.25-0.5 mm long, 2nd glume 7-9 nerved, yellowish brown, glabrous, obtuse, 2.5-3.5 mm long, sterile lemma 5-nerved, yellowish brown, glabrous, obtuse, 3.5-3.8 mm long; fertile lemma and palea lemma nerveless, obtuse, 3.5-3.8 mm long. Grain purplish, broadly ellipsoid, 3 mm long." - Radford et al 1964

Distribution

Ecology

Habitat

This species can be found growing in longleaf pine-scrub oak sand ridges, sandhills, mixed woodlands, and open longleaf pine forests on rolling terrain (FSU Herbarium). It has been observed in dry loamy sands and moist hummus-rich soils in open areas (FSU Herbarium). P. bifidum can also grow in disturbed areas such as along dirt roads and bottomland clearings along rivers (FSU Herbarium). Associated species include longleaf pine, palmetto, wiregrass, Liatris elegans, Quercus laevis, Hypericum gentianoides, Trichostema setacea, Cassia fascicularis, Eupatorium hyssopifolium, Liatris graminifolia, Elephantopus elatus, Agaratina aromatica, and Helianthus angustifolius (FSU Herbarium).

Phenology

This species has been observed flowering and fruiting from August to October (FSU Herbarium).

Seed dispersal

According to Kay Kirkman, a plant ecologist, this species disperses by gravity. [1]

Conservation and Management

Cultivation and restoration

Photo Gallery

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, Robert K. Godfrey, James R. Burkhalter, Bob Lazor,G. Knight, M. Davis, and Robert L. Lazor. States and Counties: Florida: Bay, Escambia, Jackson, Leon, Liberty, Taylor, Wakulla, and Washington. Georgia: Baker and 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. 132-5. Print.

  1. Kay Kirkman, unpublished data, 2015.