226 MISC. PUBLICATION 243, U.S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
more long, decumbent and rooting at the nodes, the flowering branches 
30 to 40 cm long; blades folded at base, flat above, 5 to 15 cm long, 3 to 
6 mm wide; racemes 2 or 3, divergent, 2 to 4.5 cm long, 4 to 15 mm 
distant; spikelets 2.5 to 2.7 mm long, elliptic, subacute, pointed 
beyond the fruit; fruit brownish; subterranean spikelets 4 to 5 mm 
long (fig. 176). 
Edge of ponds, known only from Pinar del Rio, Cuba. 
Cusa: Laguna de Piedras, Mangas, Ekman 17565 (Amer. Gr. Nat. 
Herb. 958). 
56. Paspalum conjugatum Bergius, Act. Helv. Phys. Math. 7: 129. 
pl. 8. 1762. Dutch Guiana. SOUR PASPALUM. 
Extensively creeping perennial, with long leafy stolons; culms as 
much as 2 m long, rooting at the nodes, compressed, wiry, the flower- 
ing branches 20 to 50 em tall; blades flat, commonly 8 to 12 em long, 
5 to 15 mm wide; racemes 2, paired or nearly so, rarely a third below, 
widely divaricate, often arcuate, usually 8 to 12 em long; spikelets 
1.4 to 1.8 mm long, flattened, ovate, pale yellow, the margin frmged 
with long silky hairs (fig. 177). 
A common weed in cultivated and waste ground, southern United 
States to Argentina; throughout the West Indies. The species is 
said by some to be an excellent forage grass, but Maza and Roig*® state 
that it is eaten by cattle only when they are driven to it by hunger. 
The common name “sour grass” given to this species by Grisebach 
would indicate that it was unpalatable. In Cuba it is called 
“canamazo”’ and ‘“‘caiamazo hembro.” 
56a. Paspalum conjugatum var. pubescens Doell, in Mart. Fl. Bras. 
27:55. 1877. Brazil. 
On the average coarser, the blades somewhat firmer, pubescent; 
spikelets 1.7 to 2.2 mm long, the silky hairs more copious. 
Along ditches and banks, Mexico and the Lesser Antilles to Brazil. 
VirGin Istanps: St. Thomas, Eggers in 1881. 
Winpwarp Istanps: Grenada, Broadway 1744. St. Kitts, Bor 
150. 
#% Est. Expt. Agron. Bol. 22:57. 1914. 
