Cenchrus myosuroides

Kunth
Common names: Big sandbur
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 25. Treatment on page 534.

Plants perennial. Culms 5-200 cm, stout, glaucous. Sheaths from shorter than to equaling the internodes; ligules 1.5-2(3.4) mm; blades 12-40 cm long, 4-13 mm wide, glabrous or sparsely pilose adaxially. Panicles 4-23 cm; fascicles 3.8-8 mm long, 1.2-2.6 mm wide, composed of several whorls of bristles, not burlike; bristles 3-5.8 mm long, 0.2-0.6 mm wide, fused only at the base, not forming a cupule, terete, increasing in size inwards, inner bristles pubescent on the lower 1/2 - 2/3. Spikelets 1(2-3) per fascicle, 3.8-4.8(5.6) mm. Lower glumes 1.5-3 mm; upper glumes 3-5 mm, 3-5-veined; lower lemmas 3-5.5 mm; upper lemmas 3.8-5.4 mm; anthers 0.8-2.2 mm. Caryopses 1.5-2.6 mm long, 1-1.5 mm wide, ovoid. 2n = (54), 70.

Distribution

Puerto Rico, Tex., La., Ala., Ga., S.C., Fla.

Discussion

Cenchrus myosuroides is a native species that grows mostly along roadsides and in other waste places. Its native range extends through the Caribbean and Central America to northern South America.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.