SOUTHERN GRASSES 253 



only a small percentage of the seed is good. Commercial 

 seed comes wholly from Australia, but it rarely germinates 

 over 50 per cent and is high priced. 



PARA-GRASS 



304. Para-grass (Panicum barbinode). Para-grass is 

 probably native to South America and first became known 

 to botanists from Brazil. It is a coarse growing species, 

 differing from most other grasses by producing stout 

 runners as thick as a lead pencil which reach a length of 

 15 to 40 feet. These runners take root at the nodes and 

 thus give rise to independent plants. Where there is 

 shrubbery to support them they may reach a height of 

 15 feet. The leaves are rather short, rarely longer than 

 one foot and about one-half inch wide. The sheaths are 

 quite pubescent as are the nodes also. When growing 

 thickly para-grass will under favorable conditions make a 

 dense mass of herbage 3 or 4 feet high. 



Para-grass is a tropical species and adapted to wet or 

 moist land. In Brazil, Ceylon and elsewhere it is much 

 grown and fed green to animals. It is sometimes difficult 

 to eradicate in the tropics and is especially troublesome in 

 sugar-cane fields. In the United States it is adapted only 

 to Florida and the Gulf Coast to southern Texas. In 

 Arizona and California it has been tried under irrigation, 

 but has not done very well, apparently requiring a humid 

 climate. Para-grass has survived the winter at Charleston, 

 S.C., and can probably be grown wherever the winter 

 temperature does not fall below 18 F. It often grows 

 along stream banks where it is covered with water for a 

 month or more at a time, conditions which do not harm it 

 in the least. On the margins of ponds it is frequently seen 

 growing in shallow water. 



