Panicum lepidulum Hitchc. & Chase

Panicum lepidulum Hitchc. & Chase, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 15 :
75. 1910.
Plants solitary or in small tufts, erect, 25-70 cm. high; culms usually producing "one or two erect branches from the lower nodes, sparsely papillose-pilose to merely scabrous toward the summit; leaf -sheaths longer than the short lower internodes, shorter than the middle and upper ones, papillose-hispid, the hairs ascending; ligule about 2 mm. long; blades erect, or spreading at the apex, 7-30 cm. long, 5-10 mm. wide, scarcely narrowed to the more or less infolding base, flat or folded, sparsely papillose-pilose to nearly glabrous on both surfaces, glaucous on the upper surface; terminal panicles rather long-exserted, those of the branches short-exserted or slightly included at base, 7-20 cm. long, usually scarcely half as wide, the flexuous branches ascending, bearing short, rather spreading branchlets with 1-3 spikelets toward their ends, the whole forming a more evenly flowered panicle than in P. Hallii; spikelets 4-4.2 mm. long, about 1.5 mm. wide, narrowly ovate, turgid, acuminate; first glume about half the length of the spikelet, acuminate, 5-nerved, the midnerve scabrous toward the apex; second glume and sterile lemma strongly 7-9-nerved, the midnerves scabrous toward the apex; fruit
*
2.3-2.5 mm. long, 1.3-1.5 mm. wide, oval, turgid, obtuse.
Type locality: Chihuahua, Chihuahua. Distribution: Mexico to Panama.