Plants annual or perennial; usually cespitose. Culms usually erect, not compressed. Sheaths not keeled; ligules of hairs, or membranous and, usually, ciliate; blades with vascular bundles separated by 2-6 radially arranged, tabular mesophyll cells and surrounded by a double sheath, cells of the inner sheath thick-walled, cells of the outer sheath with thinner cell walls and usually centripetal chloroplasts; chloroplasts with well-developed grana. Photosynthesis C4 NAD-me type. Panicles usually pyramidal, lax and diffuse, varying to contracted and condensed; secondary branches usually present; pedicels divergent to more or less appressed. Spikelets ellipsoid to lanceolate, glabrous. Lower glumes 1/5 - 4/5 the length of the spikelets, 1-11-veined; upper glumes and lower lemmas (5)7-15-veined; lower florets usually sterile; upper florets smooth, shining; upper paleas with compound or compound and simple papillae towards the apices, x = 9.

Discussion

There are approximately 50 species of Panicum subg. Panicum in the Western Hemisphere (Zuloaga 1987), 21 of which grow in the Flora region.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

Panicum sect. Dichotomiflora, Panicum sect. Panicum, Panicum sect. Repentia, Panicum sect. Urvilleana