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GrassBase - The Online World Grass Flora
Descriptions
W.D. Clayton, M. Vorontsova, K.T. Harman & H. Williamson
© Copyright The Board of Trustees, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Paspalum minus
HABIT Perennial; mat forming. Rhizomes elongated; woody; scaly. Culms decumbent; 27–53 cm long; 1–2 mm diam. Culm-internodes distally glabrous. Culm-nodes constricted; brown; glabrous. Lateral branches lacking. Leaves mostly basal. Leaf-sheaths as wide as blade at the collar; keeled; glabrous on surface; outer margin hairy. Leaf-sheath oral hairs ciliate. Ligule an eciliate membrane; 0.2–0.7 mm long; brown. Leaf-blades 8–14 cm long; 4–7 mm wide; light green. Leaf-blade midrib prominent beneath. Leaf-blade surface glabrous, or pilose; hairy adaxially; with tubercle-based hairs. Leaf-blade margins tuberculate-ciliate; hairy at base. Leaf-blade apex abruptly acute.
INFLORESCENCE Inflorescence composed of racemes. Peduncle pilose above; tipped by a glumaceous appendage.
Racemes 2; paired; unilateral; 4–7 cm long. Rhachis narrowly winged; 0.8–1 mm wide. Spikelet packing abaxial; 2 -rowed.
Spikelets solitary. Fertile spikelets pedicelled. Pedicels 0.5 mm long.
FERTILE SPIKELETS Spikelets comprising 1 basal sterile florets; 1 fertile florets; without rhachilla extension. Spikelets ovate, or obovate; dorsally compressed; obtuse; 2.4–2.5 mm long; falling entire.
GLUMES Glumes one the lower absent or obscure; reaching apex of florets; thinner than fertile lemma. Upper glume ovate; 1 length of spikelet; membranous; without keels; 3(–5) -veined. Upper glume apex obtuse.
FLORETS Basal sterile florets barren; without significant palea. Lemma of lower sterile floret similar to upper glume; ovate; 1 length of spikelet; membranous; 3 -veined; obtuse. Fertile lemma elliptic, or obovate; 2.1–2.2 mm long; indurate; pallid; without keel. Lemma surface striate. Lemma margins involute. Palea involute; indurate.
FLOWER Anthers 3; 0.9–1.2 mm long; purple.
FRUIT Caryopsis with adherent pericarp; ellipsoid; 1.4 mm long.
DISTRIBUTION North America: south-central USA and Mexico. South America: Mesoamericana, Caribbean, northern South America, western South America, Brazil, and southern South America.
NOTES Paniceae. Fl Costaric 1993.
Please cite this publication as detailed in How to Cite Version: 3rd February 2016.
