Big Carpet Grass

Anastrophus obtusifolius (Raddi) Nash
IHelopus harbatus Trin. Neue Entdeck. 2 : 49. 1821.
Paspalum obtusifolium Raddi, Agrost. Bras. 23. 1823.

Anastrophus furcatus (Fliigge) Nash
Paspalum furcatum. Fliigge, Gram. Monog. 114. 1810.
Milium distichum Muhl. Cat. 10. 1813 ; Descr. Gram. 78. 1817.
Milium p asp alodes EH. Bet. S. C. & Ga. 1 : 104, in part. 1816.
Paspalum Digitaria Chapm. Fl. S. U. S. 570. 1860. Not P. Digitaria Poir. 1816.
Paspalum Digitaria C. Muell. Bot. Zeit. 19 : 324. 1861. Not P. Digitaria Poir. 1816.
Paspalum, Michauxianum, villosum, Vasey, Bull. Torrey Club 13 : 163. 1886,
Paspalum Ellioitii S. Wats, in A. Gray, Man. ed. 6. 629. 1890.
Paspalum, furcatum, villosum. Vasey, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3 : 16. 1892.
Paspalum. paspaloides Scribn. Mem. Torrey Club 5 : 29, in part. 1894.
Paspalum paspaloides villosum, Scribn. & Ball, Bull. U. S. Dep. Agr. Agrost. 24: 42. 1901.
Anastrophus paspaloides Nash, in Britton, Man. 75. 1901.
A tufted perennial with long creeping leafy stolons, broad flat leaf-blades, and glabrous spikelets. Stems 3-10 dm. tall, with one or more leafless branches above; leaf-sheaths glabrous or hirsute, much compressed, keeled; blades glabrous or hirsute, 3 dm. long or less, 6-15 mm. wide, linear; racemes in pairs at the summit of the stem, rarely with an additional one a short distance below, 3-15 cm. long; spikelets 4—6 mm. long, glabrous, acute, the outer scales 5nerved, or the second often 4-nerved by the suppression of the midnerve, the fruiting scale one half to two thirds as long as the others.
Type locality : [South] Carolina.
Distribution : Virginia to Florida, and west to Texas.

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Rhizomes present, Rhizome elongate, creeping, stems distant, Stolons or runners present, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems geniculate, decumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at nodes, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems compressed, flattened, or sulcate, Stem nodes bearded or hairy, Stem internodes solid or spongy, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly basal, below middle of stem, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades lanceolate, Leaf blades ovate, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades 1-2 cm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blade margins folded, involute, or conduplicate, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Ligule present, Ligule a fringed, ciliate, or lobed membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence lateral or axillary, 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, Inflorescence branches paired or digitate at a single node, Inflorescence branches paired racemes, V-shaped, Rachis angular, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets sessile or subsessile, Spikelets dorsally compressed or terete, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 1 fertile floret, Spikelets solitary 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, Gl umes 1 clearly present, the other greatly reduced or absent, Glumes distinctly unequal, Glume equal to or longer than spikelet, Glumes 4-7 nerved, Lemma coriaceous, firmer or thicker in texture than the glumes, Lemma becoming indurate, enclosing palea and caryopsis, Lemma glabrous, Lemma apex truncate, rounded, or obtuse, Lemma apex acute or acuminate, Lemma awnless, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea longer than lemma, Palea 2 nerved or 2 keeled, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis.