Guinea Grass

Panicum maximum Jacq. Coll. 1: 76. 1786
Panicum polygamum Sw. Prodr. 24. 1788.
Panicum laeve I^am. Tab. Kncyc. 1: 172. 1791.
Panicum jumentorum Pers. Syn. PI. 1: 83. 1805.
Panicum scaberrimum Lag. Gen. & Sp. Nov. 2. 1816.
Panicum trichocondylum Steud. Syn. Gram. 74. 1854.
Panicum praticola Salzm.; Doell, in Mart. Fl. Bras. 2 2 : 203, as synonym. 1877.
Plants light-green, 1-2.5 meters high, or taller in cultivation, in tufts of few to many culms, from creeping rootstocks ; culms robust, erect or sometimes geniculate and rooting at the lower nodes, glabrous, the nodes usually densely hirsute; leaf-sheaths shorter than the internodes, papillose-hirsute to glabrous-ciliate, usually a dense ring of pubescence at the juncture with 225
the blade; ligule 4-6 mm. long, stiffly and densely ciliate from a membranaceous base; blades erect or ascending, flat, 30-75 cm. long, 1-3.5 cm. wide, very scabrous on the margin, otherwise glabrous, or hirsute on the upper surface at the base; panicles finally long-exserted, 20-50 cm. long, usually about one third as wide, densely flowered, the long, rather stiff branches ascending, naked at the base, the lower in whorls, the axils pilose, the branchlets short, appressed, bearing more or less clustered, short-pediceled spikelets; spikelets 3-3.3 mm. long, 1-1.1 mm. wide, and about as thick, oblongellipsoid, glabrous, somewhat shining, faintly nerved; first glume about one third the length of the spikelet, obtuse; second glume and sterile lemma subequal, slightly exceeding the fruit, thin in texture, the lemma inclosing a staminate flower; fruit 2.3-2.5 mm. long, about 1 mm. wide, elliptic, transversely rugose, minutely puberulent at the apex.
Type locality: Guadeloupe.
Distribution: Introduced in America, from Florida, Mexico, and the West Indies to tropical South America; also in the tropical parts of the Old World.