Panicum brevifolium L.

Annuals; culm branching and rooting at lower nodes, 15-50 cm tall. Blade at least hispid at base, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, thin, cordate, clasping culm, 3-6 cm long, 1-2 cm wide; sheath glabrous, ciliate on margins; ligule a ring of hairs, ca. 0.5 mm long. Panicle ovoid, open, 5-12 cm long, branches capillary. Spikelets elliptic, turgid, purplish, narrowed at base, acutish, hispidulous, ca. 1.7 mm long; lower glume oblong, acute, 3-veined, nearly as long as spikelet; upper glume and lower lemma equal in length, 5-veined; lower palea as long as lower lemma; upper lemma ridged, smooth, coriaceous. .

Annual. Culms rambling, often rooting at lower nodes, 15–100 cm tall, nodes glabrous or pubescent. Leaves cauline; leaf sheaths puberulous or glabrous, ciliate on margins; ligule ca. 0.2 mm, a ciliolate membrane; leaf blades narrowly ovate to ovate, 5–10 × 1–3 cm, membranous, glabrous or pilose, cross veins present, base amplexicaul, apex finely acute to acuminate. Panicle oblong or ovate in outline, 5–15 cm, much branched; branches delicate, often tangled, glabrous or pilose, glandular patches present. Spikelets asymmetrically borne on the pedicels, ovate or elliptic in outline, 1.5–2 mm, sparsely puberulous to pilose; lower glume ovate, as long as spikelet, hyaline, 1–3-veined, separated by an internode; upper glume as long as spikelet, 5-veined; lower lemma similar to upper glume, palea well developed; upper floret white, scaberulous, shiny. Fl. and fr. May–Dec. 2n = 36.

Tropical Africa and Asia. Taiwan, in thickets, forest margins, trails and rice fields

Humid places, forest margins. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Jiangxi, Taiwan, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; tropical Africa].

Panicum arborescens Linnaeus; P. brevifolium var. hirti-folium (Ridley) Jansen; P. hirtifolium Ridley; P. longiglume H. Peng & L. H. Zhou; P. ovalifolium Poiret.

brevifolium: with short leaves