Prairie Panic Grass

Panicum brachyanthum Steud. Syn. Gram. 67. 1854
Panicum sparsijlorum Vasey, Bull. U. S. Dep. Agr. Bot. 8: 36. 1889. Not P. sparsifiorum Doell, 1877.
Plants weakly ascending or spreading from a decumbent base, freely branching from the lower nodes; culms slender, 30-100 cm. high; leaf-sheaths shorter than the internodes, minutely ciliate; blades 5-15 cm. long, 2-3 mm. wide, narrowed toward the base, often involute and scabrous toward the apex, the uppermost usually reduced; panicles finally exserted, 5-15 cm. long, about as wide, the branches few, scabrous, the lower sometimes as much as 10 cm. long, bearing a few short-pediceled spikelets, mostly in twos, toward the ends; spikelets 3.2-3.6 mm. long, 1.5 mm. wide, elliptic-obovate, abruptly pointed; first glume minute; second glume and sterile lemma subequal, the tubercles bearing stiff, spreading hairs; fruit 2.9-3 mm. long, 1.4 mm. wide, obovate-elliptic, subacute.
Type locality: Texas.
Distribution: Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas.