Panicum cayennense Lam.

Panicum cayennense Lam. Tab. Encyc. 1: 173. 1791
Panicum fioribundum Rich.; Lam. Encyc. 4: 742, as synonym. 1797. Panicum peduncular e Willd.; Steud. Syn. Gram. 77. 1854. Panicum cayennese patulum Doell, in Mart. FL Bras. 2 2 : 220. 1877.
Plants erect, or, when much-branched at the base, spreading; culms 20-50 cm. high, often zigzag, glabrous or more or less papillose-pilose below the pilose nodes; leaf -sheaths papillosepilose, ciliate; blades linear, 10-20 cm. long, 4-10 mm. wide, rather stiffly ascending, rounded at the scarcely narrowed base, rather sparsely papillose-pilose on both surfaces or sometimes nearly glabrous; panicles terminal and axillary from the upper 2 or 3 sheaths, rarely fascicled, approximate and forming an elongate inflorescence from two thirds to almost the entire height
of the plant, the individual panicles included at the base, 8—20 cm. long, half to two thirds as
wide, the slender, scabrous branches and branchlets and the long, flexuous pedicels divaricate;
spikelets 2.2-2.3 mm. long, 1.2 mm. wide, ob ovoid, turgid; first glume about half the length of
the spikelet, acute ; second glume and sterile lemma equal, slightly exceeding the fruit, abruptly
short-pointed, strongly 5-7-nerved, the sterile palea about half the length of its lemma; fruit
1.7 mm. long, 1.1 mm. wide, oval, turgid.
Typ3 locality: Cayenne.
Distribution: Cuba; Costa Rica to Brazil.