Plants densely cespitose. Basal rosettes poorly
differentiated; blades 1-5 cm, lanceolate, grading into the cauline blades.
Culms 5-45 cm, slender, erect or spreading; from a dense tuft of predominantly
basal leaves, lower internodes short, upper 3-5 internodes elongate; nodes
glabrous or bearded; internodes glabrous or pilose; fall phase
with spreading culms and branches arising from near the bases forming a dense,
flat tuft. Cauline leaves 2-4; lower cauline sheaths longer than
the internodes, mostly glabrous or pilose with ascending hairs, margins finely
ciliate; ligules 0.2-2 mm, at low magnification appearing to be membranous
and ciliate, at high magnification evidently of hairs that are coherent at the
base; blades 1.5-6 cm long, 3-8 mm wide, lanceolate, glabrous or softly
pilose, margins with prominent papillose-based cilia, at least basally. Primary
panicles short- to long-exserted; rachises and branches often
pilose. Spikelets 1.1-2.1 mm, obovoid to broadly ellipsoid, glabrous
or pubescent, hairs not papillose-based. Lower glumes 1/3-1/2 as long
as the spikelets, acute to obtuse; upper florets 0.8-1.7 mm, ellipsoid,
subacute.
Dichanthelium strigosum extends from the southeastern Flora region
south into Mexico, the Caribbean, and into northern South America.
The primary panicles are briefly open-pollinated in April or May; the secondary
panicles, which are produced from May through November, are cleistogamous. The
three subspecies are mostly sympatric and sometimes grow together, with occasional
intergradation.
Culms usually less than 30 cm, glabrous, usually very densely cespitose;
nodes glabrous. Cauline blades mostly glabrous, sometimes sparsely
pilose basally. Spikelets 1.4-1.8 mm, glabrous, obovoid; lower glumes
about 1/3 as long as the spikelets. 2n = unknown.
Dichanthelium strigosum subsp. glabrescens grows in sandy, open
pine woods and bogs. Its range extends from Mississippi along the coast to Florida
and south through the West Indies.
Vegetatively much like no. 19 [Panicum laxiflorum Lam.]; culms sparsely to densely pilose; sheaths and blades densely ascending-pilose, the blade-margins coarsely papillose-ciliate; cauline lvs few, often solitary, the uppermost one 1.5-6 cm, less than three-fourths as long as the basal; primary panicle 4-8 cm, its widely ascending branches pilose; spikelets glabrous, oblong-obovoid, 1.1-1.5 mm; first glume a third to half as long, triangular; second glume and sterile lemma equaling the fr; autumnal phase densely matted, with much reduced panicles; 2n=18. Sandy woods and pine-barrens; se. Va. to Fla., Tex., C. Amer., W.I., and n. S. Amer. (P. laxiflorum var. pubescens; P. longipedunculatum; Dichanthelium leucoblepharis var. pubescens; Dichanthelium s.)
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.