Latin American Crowngrass

Paspalum coavexum Fliigge, Gram. Monog. 175. 1810
Paspalum hemicryptum Wright ; Sauv. Anal. Acad. Ci. Habana 8 : 204. 1871. Paspalum pauperculum Fourn. Mex. PI. Gram. 10. 1881. Paspalum pauperculum alHus Fourn. Mex. PI, Gram. 10. 1881. Paspalum inops Vasey, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 1 : 281. 1893. Paspalum inops major Vasey ; Beal, Grasses N. Am. 2 : 89. 1896.
Stems up to 6 dm. tall, glabrous; leaf-sheaths glabrous or papillose-hirsute; blades up to 2 dm. long and 1 cm. wide, papillose-hirsute, rarely glabrous; racemes 2 or 3, rarely 1, ascending or erect, 2-4 cm. long; spikelets ci!"cular, strongly convex, 2-3 mm. in diameter, glabrous, the first scale wanting, the second and third scales 5-nerved, the fruiting scale very convex, smooth and shining, deep-brown.
Type locality : Jorullo, Michoacan. Distribution : Mexico to Costa Rica ; Cuba.

Annuals, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems trailing, spreading or prostrate, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems geniculate, decumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at nodes, Stems mat or turf forming, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stems branching above base or distally at nodes, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath hairy, hispid or prickly, Leaf sheath or blade keeled, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Leaf blad es more or less hairy, Leaf blades scabrous, roughened, or wrinkled, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence a panicle with narrowly racemose or spicate branches, Inflorescence with 2-10 branches, Inflorescence branches 1-sided, Rachis dilated, flat, central axis to which spikelets are attached, Rachis winged, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets dorsally compressed or terete, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 1 fertile floret, Spikelets with 2 florets, Spikelet with 1 fertile floret and 1-2 sterile florets, Spikelets paired at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating below the glumes, Spikelets secund, in rows on one side of rachis, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 1 clearly present, the other greatly reduced or absent, Glumes distinctly unequal, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glume equal to or longer than spikelet, Glumes 4-7 nerved, Lemma similar in texture to glumes, Lemma becoming indurate, enclosing palea and caryopsis, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma body or surface hairy, Lemma apex truncate, rounded, or obtuse, Lemma awnless, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea shorter than lemma, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis white.