Panicum tuerckheimii Hack.

Panicum tuerckheimii Hack. Alig. Bot. Zeits. 12 : 60. 1906
Plants perennial, from a firm knotty base with strong roots; culms erect or ascending, simple, 30-50 cm. high, compressed, glabrous, with few to several long erect leaves borne at the base, the nodes appressed-hirsute ; leaf -sheaths compressed-keeled, more or less hispidulous at the juncture with the blade, otherwise glabrous, those of the basal leaves loose, overlapping, those of the culm about as long as the internodes; ligule membranaceous-ciliate, scarcely 0.5 mm. long; blades thin, flat, 10-25 cm. long, 2-2.5 cm. wide, gradually tapering from about the middle to an acuminate apex, the uppermost rather abruptly narrowed to a somewhat rounded ciliate base, the lower and especially the basal blades gradually tapering into a narrow, more or less folded, petiole-like base, ciliate on the margins, puberulent on the upper surface at the very base; panicles short-exserted, 15-20 cm. long, less than one fourth as wide, the slender angled axis and branches glabrous, the branches remote, rather stiffly ascending, with short ascending remote branchlets, these spikelet-bearing from the base, more or less pilose in the axils, the lower branches about 10 cm. long; spikelets rather short-pediceled, russet-brown,
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2.5-3 mm. long, about 0.9 mm. wide, acuminate, very sparsely appressed-pilose; first glume minute, hyaline ; second glume and sterile lemma rather faintly nerved, subequal, or the acuminate tip of the glume exceeding the lemma, the sterile palea wanting; fruit 2.4 mm. long, 0.8 mm. wide, the lemma and palea not greatly indurated, the lemma minutely pubescent at the pointed apex, the palea at the very tip not enclosed.
Type locality: Cubilquitz, Guatemala. Distribution: Known only from the type collection.