Plants grayish-green, cespitose. Basal rosettes
poorly differentiated; blades 2-8 cm, ovate to lanceolate, grading into
the cauline blades. Culms 20-55 cm, erect; nodes densely bearded;
internodes densely villous; fall phase with spreading culms branching
from the lower and midculm nodes, eventually producing flabellate clusters of
reduced, flat blades, secondary panicles much reduced. Cauline leaves
3-4; sheaths shorter than the internodes, pilose with ascending papillose-based
hairs to villous; ligules 0.5-2 mm, of hairs; blades 4-12 cm long,
2-8 mm wide, stiffly ascending to erect, often wrinkled along the prominent
veins, usually villous on both surfaces, apices involute-pointed, blades of
the flag leaves much reduced. Primary panicles 3-7 cm long, 1-4 cm wide,
well-exserted; branches usually ascending, glabrous or puberulent. Spikelets
2.3-3 mm long, 1.4-1.8 mm wide, obovoid, biconvex in side view, densely pubescent,
attenuate basally. Lower glumes about 1/3 as long as the spikelets, attached
about 0.2 mm below the upper glumes, clasping at the base, broadly triangular,
thinner than the upper glumes, weakly veined; upper glumes with 5-9 prominent
veins; lower florets sterile; upper florets broadly ellipsoid,
apices blunt, minutely puberulent. 2n = 18.
Dichanthelium consanguineum grows in sandy woodlands and low, boggy pinelands.
It is restricted to the southeastern United States. The primary panicles are
open-pollinated and produced from April to June; the secondary panicles are
cleistogamous and produced from June into fall. Some specimens of D. consanguineum
suggest that hybridization occasionally occurs with D.
aciculare or D.
ovale.
Culms clustered, spreading or ascending, 2-6 dm, with bearded nodes and densely ascending-villous internodes; sheaths and blades villous; ligule a band of hairs not over 1 mm, or obsolete; blades most 6-10 cm × 4-8 mm; primary panicle 4-8 cm, with ascending branches, appearing ±compact; spikelets short-villous, obovoid, blunt, 2.3-2.8 mm; first glume a third as long, broadly triangular, blunt; second glume and sterile lemma slightly surpassed by the mature fr; autumnal phase with numerous short crowded branches, flat blades 3-5 cm, and very small panicles much surpassed by the upper lvs; 2n=18. Sandy woods on the coastal plain; se. Va. to Fla. and Tex., n. in the Mississippi Valley to s. Mo. (Dichanthelium c.)
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.