596 



MISC. PUBLICATION 200, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



Figure 858. — Axonopus furcatus. Plant, X 1; spikelet and floret, X 10. (Combs 1205, Fla.) 



1. Axonopus furcatus (Fliigge) 

 Hitchc. (Fig. 858.) Plants stolo- 

 niferous; culms compressed, tufted, 

 erect, or decumbent at base. 40 to 

 100 cm. tall; blades flat, mostly 5 

 to 10 mm. wide, glabrous, ciliate, or 

 even hirsute; racemes 2, digitate, 

 rarely a third below, spreading, 5 to 

 10 cm. long; spikelets 4 to 5 mm. 

 long (rarely less), glabrous, acute, 

 glume and sterile lemma 5-nerved; 

 fruit about two-thirds as long as 

 the spikelet. % — Marshes, river 

 banks, and moist pine barrens, on 

 the Coastal Plain, southeastern Vir- 

 ginia to Florida, Texas, and Ar- 

 kansas. (The name Anastrophus pas- 

 paloides has been misapplied to this 

 species. Digitaria paspalodes Michx., 

 upon which it is based, is Paspalum 

 distichum L.) 



2. Axonopus ccmpressus (Swartz) 

 Beauv. (Fig. 859.) Stolonif erous ; 

 culms 15 to 50 cm. tall, relatively 

 stout, compressed, the nodes usually 

 densely pubescent; stolons elongate 

 with short internodes and short, 

 broad, obtuse blades; culm blades 

 8 to 25 cm. long, mostly 8 to 12 mm. 

 wide, the uppermost greatly reduced, 

 the margins ciliate; racemes 2 to 5, 

 mostly 4 to 8 cm. long, ascending, 

 the upper two conjugate, the others 

 remote on the axis; spikelets 2.2 to 

 2.5, occasionally to 2.8, mm. long, 

 sparsely pilose, the second glume and 



sterile lemma distinctly pointed be- 

 yond the fruit. % — Moist ground, 

 roadsides, and waste places, southern 

 Florida and Louisiana; Mexico and 

 the West Indies to Bolivia and Brazil. 

 3. Axonopus affinis Chase. (Fig. 

 860.) Tufted or stolonif erous ; culms 

 slender, glabrous, 25 to 35 cm. tall, 

 rarely as much as 75 cm., sometimes 

 forming dense mats; sheaths com- 

 pressed, keeled; blades as much as 

 28 cm. long, usually less than 15 cm., 

 2 to 6 mm. wide, flat or folded; 

 racemes 2 to 4, 2 to 10 cm. long, 

 ascending; spikelets 2 mm. long, 

 oblong-elliptic, subacute, the second 

 glume and sterile lemma covering the 

 fruit or slightly pointed beyond it, 

 sparsely silky-pilose. % — Moist 

 mucky or sandy meadows, open woods 

 and waste places, North Carolina to 

 Florida and west to Oklahoma and 

 Texas; Cuba and southern Mexico; 

 Venezuela and Colombia to Argen- 

 tina. Naturalized and common in 

 Australia. 



135. REIMAR0CHLOA Hitchc. 



Spikelets strongly dorsally com- 

 pressed, lanceolate, acuminate, rather 

 distant, subsessile, and alternate in 

 2 rows along one side of a narrow, 

 flattened rachis, the back of the 

 fertile lemma turned toward it; both 

 glumes wanting, or the second some- 

 times present in the terminal spike- 



