Soft Paspalum

Paspalum portoricense Nash, Bull. Torrey Club 30 : 377. 1903
A low tufted nearly glabrous slender perennial. Stems about 1 dm. tall, simple, glabrous, with the exception of a few hairs at the nodes; leaf-sheaths glabrous, usually shorter than the internodes and blades; blades 2-6 cm. long, 3-5 mm. wide, linear, acuminate, usually more or less narrowed toward the base, ascending, flat, rather thin, the upper surface with some long hairs at the very base and a few scattered ones elsewhere, sparingly ciliate, the lower surface glabrous; racemes 1 or 2, slender, erect, about 2 cm. long; spikelets in pairs, elliptic, 1.8 mm. long and 0.7 mm., wide, usually purplishtinged, glabrous, the first scale wanting, the second and third scales 3-nerved, the fruiting scale gr eenishwhite, a little shorter than the outer scales, obtuse.
Type locality : Between Aibonito and Cayay, Porto Rico. Distribution : Known only from the type locality.

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems trailing, spreading or prostrate, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems geniculate, decumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at nodes, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly basal, below middle of stem, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath hairy, hispid or prickly, Leaf sheath or blade keeled, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blade margins folded, involute, or conduplicate, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflores cence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence a panicle with narrowly racemose or spicate branches, Inflorescence with 2-10 branches, Inflorescence branches 1-sided, Inflorescence branches paired or digitate at a single node, Inflorescence branches paired racemes, V-shaped, Rachis dilated, flat, central axis to which spikelets are attached, Rachis angular, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets dorsally compressed or terete, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 1 fertile floret, Spikelets with 2 florets, Spikelet with 1 fertile floret and 1-2 sterile florets, Spikelets paired at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating below the glumes, Spikelets secund, in rows on one side of rachis, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 1 clearly present, the other greatly reduced or absent, Glumes distinctly unequal, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glume equal to or longer than spikelet, Glume surface hairy, villous or pilose, Glumes 3 nerved, Glumes 4-7 nerved, Lemma similar in texture to glumes, Lemma becoming indurate, enclosing palea and caryopsis, Lemma 3 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma apex acute or acuminate, Lemma awnless, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea shorter than lemma, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis.