Beaked Cut Throat Grass

Panicum rhizomatum Hitchc. & Chase, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb
15: 109. 1910.
Plants like P. anceps in habit, the culms less robust, the scaly rhizomes slender and more numerous ; leaves more or less clustered toward the base, the sheaths, except the lowermost, shorter than the internodes, densely to sparsely villous along the margin and toward the summit, a dense ring of pubescence at the juncture with the blade; ligule nearly obsolete; blades erect or the lower commonly spreading, 1 0-40 cm. long (usually not more than 30 cm.), 5-10 mm. wide, pubescent on both surfaces or sometimes glabrous except on the upper surface toward the base; terminal panicles long-exserted, the usually numerous smaller axillary ones shortpeduncled or partially included, 10-25 cm. long, usually less than one third as wide, more or less contracted and densely flowered, rather more compound than in P. anceps, the distant primary branches ascending, bearing numerous branchlets 1-3 cm. long, these with appressed, short, approximate branchlets, with crowded spikelets set obliquely on their short, appressed pedicels as in P. anceps, but hardly at all secund; spikelets 2.4—2.8 mm. long, about 1 mm. wide ; first glume one third to scarcely half as long as the spikelet, acute ; second glume and sterile lemma subequal, beaked as in P. anceps but less strongly so, little exceeding the fruit; fruit 1.9 mm. long, 0.9 mm. wide.
Type locality: Orangeburg, South Carolina. Distribution : Virginia to Florida, and west to Texas.

Panicum anceps Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 48. 1803
?Panicum pennsylvanicum Spreng. Bot. Gart. Halle Nachtr. 1: 30. 1801.
Panicum rostratum Muhl.; Willd. Enum. 1032. 1809.
Agrostis nutans Poir. in Lam. Encyc. Suppl. 1: 255. 1810.
Panicum nutans Desv. Opusc. 93. 1831.
Panicum anceps angustum Vasey, Bull. U. S. Dep. Agr. Bot. 8: 37. iy °9.
Panicum anceps densiflorum Vasey, Bull. U. S. Dep. Agr. Bot. 8: 37. 1889.
Plants in tufts of few to many culms, 50-100 cm. high or more, with numerous stout, scaly rootstocks ; culms usually robust, not strongly compressed, glabrous ; leaf -sheaths usually shorter than the internodes, glabrous to densely papillose-pilose, especially at the summit; ligule membranaceous, less than 1 mm. long; blades erect, flat or but slightly conduplicate at base, 20-50 cm. long, 4-12 mm. wide, pilose and usually ciliate on the upper surface toward the base] otherwise glabrous, scabrous or more or less pubescent on the upper and occasionally on the under surface: panicles terminal only, or narrow, long-peduncled panicles produced from the upper sheaths, the terminal ones finally long-exserted but often nearly equaled by the long blades, 15-40 cm. long, usually half to two thirds as wide (or occasionally narrow), the long, slender, remote branches somewhat spreading, bearing short, mostly appressed, distant or approximate branchlets with rather crowded, somewhat curved, subsecund spikelets set obliquely on their short, appressed, scabrous pedicels, the first glume toward the main axis, the axis and branches scabrous, usually with a few hairs in the axils; spikelets 3.4-3.8 mm. long, 1-1.2 mm. wide (occasional specimens with smaller spikelets) ; first glume one third to half the length of the spikelet, acute ; second glume and sterile lemma subequal, forming a beak beyond the fruit, the tips open at maturity; fruit 2-2.2 mm. long, about 1 mm. wide.
Type locality: Carolina.
Distribution: New Jersey to Kansas, and south to Florida and Texas.

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Rhizomes present, Rhizome short and compact, stems close, Rhizome elongate, creeping, stems distant, 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, Stems branching above base or distally at nodes, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems with inflorescence 1-2 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 hairy at summit, throat, or collar, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blade with prominently raised or widened midvein, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Leaf blades more or less hairy, Leaf blades scabrous, roughened, or wrinkled, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence an open panicle, openly paniculate, branches spreading, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glom erule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence branches more than 10 to numerous, 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 solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike 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, Glumes 4-7 nerved, Lemma similar in texture to glumes, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma apex truncate, rounded, or obtuse, 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.

Panicum anceps is a species of grass known by the common name beaked panicgrass. It is native to the southeastern United States, where it occurs as far north as New Jersey and as far west as Kansas and Texas.

This species is a rhizomatous perennial grass with stems growing up to 1.3 meters tall. The leaves have erect blades up to half a meter tall. The inflorescence is a panicle up to 40 centimeters long bearing pale green or yellowish spikelets. The grass produces an abundance of seed. The seed is curved like the beak of a bird, giving the plant its common name.

In the wild this plant grows in moist areas such as swampland and wet woodland habitat.

This grass provides a good graze for cattle and horses throughout most of the year. It does not tolerate overgrazing. Deer also graze the plant and the seed provides food for birds. The plant is also used for revegetation efforts on disturbed land such as mine spoils and roadsides. It is best grown in moist to wet soils.