Venezuelan Panicgrass

Panicum ineptum Hitchc. & Chase, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 17:
509. 1915.
Plants perennial (?); culms slender, apparently ascending, probably 50 cm. long or more, slender, striate-fluted, glabrous or the upper internodes sparsely pilose, producing nearly simple branches as much as 25 cm. long; nodes retrorsely pubescent; leaf-sheaths loose, shorter than the internodes, pilose, the margins densely ciliate; Hgule ciliate, about 0.5 mm. long; blades spreading, flat, 3-6 mm. wide, tapering from the truncate base to an acuminate apex, softly pilose on both surfaces ; panicles terminal, those of the branches short-exserted, 3-5 cm. long, consisting of few to several short, spreading, densely flowered branches, remote along the slender pilose axis, the branches 4-6 mm. long, bearing 1-8 subsessile spikelets, the rachis pilose; spikelets 2.5-2.7 mm. long, 1.1 mm. wide, blunt; first glume about half as long as the spikelet, 3-nerved, obtuse, pubescent; second glume and sterile lemma equal, inflated, much larger than the fruit, the glume gibbous in the middle, 7-nerved, pubescent, the sterile lemma 3-nerved, glabrous, enclosing a membranaceous palea; fruit 1.6 mm. long, 0.9 mm. wide, elliptic, smooth and shining, the lemma strongly convex.
Type locality: Santo Domingo.
Distribution: Known only from the type specimen.

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems trailing, spreading or prostrate, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems geniculate, decumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at nodes, Stems solitary, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem nodes bearded or hairy, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mos tly basal, below middle of stem, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath hairy, hispid or prickly, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades lanceolate, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blade margins folded, involute, or conduplicate, Leaf blades more or less hairy, Ligule present, Ligule a fringed, ciliate, or lobed 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, 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 al ike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating below the glumes, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes distinctly unequal, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glume equal to or longer than spikelet, Glume surface hairy, villous or pilose, Glumes 4-7 nerved, Lemma similar in texture to glumes, Lemma becoming indurate, enclosing palea and caryopsis, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma apex acute or acuminate, Lemma awnless, Lemma margins inrolled, tightly covering palea and caryopsis, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea about equal to lemma, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear.