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Grass Gallery

Poaceae, Panicoideae, Paniceae - Witchgrass

(Family, Subfamily, Tribe)

Waves of Grain Index - Grass

Same Genus name as Panicgrass

Witchgrass Panicum capillare

Dry panicle can detach and act like a tumbleweed.

(Native of Texas - Taylor, Nolan, Fisher, Jones, Coleman, Brown)

Photos taken in Taylor County, Texas, July 2005, September 2007

see similar   Fall Witchgrass (actually a crabgrass)

Base: annual, many branches, no rhizomes, no stolons (runner stem)

Blade (leaf): elongate, 25cm long, 8mm wide, near the base of the culm, floppy, can be hairy or not hairy

Sheath (leaf part encircling stem): Sheaths are light green to pale reddish, finely ribbed, very hairy.

Culm (main grain stem): reclined to upright, 30-90cm tall, multiple culms from base, rare branching, round, can be hairy or not hairy

Inflorescence: fan to airy oval shape, 30cm long, may not totally extend out of the sheath, main axis hairy, hairy nodes, wiry secondary branches are not hairy and terminate in a single spikelet. 

Spikelet: 2.0-2.5mm long, hairless, beaked (point), green, one glum becomes purple, then panicle and spikelets turn tan

Waves of Grain Index - Grass

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