MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



549 



native of Africa. Cultivated for forage and spreading in open ground 

 through Central and South America and the West Indies. It has 

 been tried successfully in southern Florida. The grass has a heavy 

 sweetish odor when fresh. Called 

 in Brazil capim gordura. 



Thysanolaena maxima (Roxb.) 

 Kuntze. Robust perennial, 1 to 3 m 

 tall; blades 3 to 7 cm wide; panicle 

 commonly 1 m long, the slender dense- 

 ly-flowered branches drooping; spike- 

 lets about 2 mm long, pointed; fertile 

 lemma long-ciliate. % — Introduced 

 in southern Florida and southern 

 California as an ornamental. 



TRIBE 12. PANICEAE 



119. ANTHAENANTIABeauv. 



Spikelets obovoid; first glume 

 wanting; second glume and ster- 

 ile lemma about equal, 5-nerved, 

 the broad internerves infolded, 

 densely villous, the sterile lemma 

 with a small palea and sometimes 

 with a staminate flower; fertile 

 lemma cartilaginous, brown, with 

 narrow pale hyaline margins, 

 boat-shaped, 3-nerved, subacute. ||| 

 Erect perennials with short 

 creeping rhizomes, narrow, firm, 

 flat blades, the uppermost much 

 reduced, and narrow panicles, the 

 slender branches ascending or 

 appressed. Type species, Anthae- 

 nantia villosa. Name from Greek 

 anthos, flower, and enantios con- 

 trary. (Beauvois misinterpreted 

 the structure of the spikelet.) 9 



In pine barrens A. ruja may be an important element in the natural 

 pasture. 



Blades erect or spreading, rather blunt or rounded at the apex, linear, folded at 

 base; panicle usually purple 1- . A. rufa. 



Blades ascending or spreading (on the average shorter and broader than in A. ruja), 

 tapering to the apex, rounded at base; panicle usually pale.- 2. A. villosa. 



1. Anthaenantia rufa (Ell.) Schult. (Fig. 1152, A.) Culms 

 slender, 60 to 120 cm tall; blades elongate, 3 to 5 mm wide, often 

 scabrous; panicle 8 to 15 cm long, usually purple; spikelets 3 to 4 mm 

 long. Qi -Moist pine barrens, Coastal Plain, North Carolina to 

 Florida and eastern Texas (fig. 1153). 



2. Anthaenantia villosa (Michx.) Beauv. (Fig. 1152, B.) Differ- 

 ing from A. rufa in the wider, mostly shorter, spreading blades and in 

 the usually pale panicles. % — Dry pine barrens, Coastal Plain, 

 North Carolina to Florida and Louisiana (fig. 1154). 



» See Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 24: 170. 1925. 



Figure 1151. 



let, X 10 



Mdinis minutiflora. Plant, X 1; spike- 

 (Moldenke 453, Fla.) 



