Plants cespitose, with caudices, forming small, often rather dense clumps with few culms. Basal rosettes well-differentiated; blades 1-5 cm, ovate to lanceolate. Culms 15-55 cm tall, 0.2-0.8 mm thick, erect from geniculate bases; nodes glabrous; internodes mostly glabrous, or the lowest internodes sparsely appressed-pubescent basally; fall phase branching sparingly from the lower and midculm nodes. Cauline leaves 3-4; sheaths much shorter than the internodes, prominently veined, mostly glabrous, margins occasionally ciliate, ligules 0.2-0.7 mm, of hairs, without adjacent pseudoligules; blades 2-6 cm long, 1.5-6 mm wide, ascending, distant, flat, relatively thick, glabrous on both surfaces or the abaxial surfaces minutely puberulent, bases rounded, margins more or less prominently whitish-scabridulous, blades of the flag leaves much shorter than those of the lower leaves. Primary panicles 3-6 cm, nearly as wide as long, long-exserted, dense; branches wiry, spreading to ascending, usually scabridulous. Spikelets 1.3-1.7 mm long, less than 1 mm wide, ellipsoid, often purplish, densely puberulent, obtuse or subacute. Lower glumes usually less than 1/4 as long as the spikelets, broadly acute or obtuse; upper glumes and lower lemmas subequal, or the glumes slightly shorter, exceeded by the upper florets; lower florets sterile; upper florets 1.3-1.6 mm, ellipsoid, subacute. 2n = 18.

Dichanthelium tenue grows in moist to dry, sandy woods, savannahs, and disturbed sites. It also grows in Chiapas, Mexico (Zuloaga et al. 1993). It exhibits features of D. sphaerocarpon and D. dichotomum. It is also closely related to D. ensifolium, and occasional specimens are intermediate between them.

Culms tufted, 1.5-4 dm, typically slender and delicate, mostly glabrous, sometimes appressed-hairy; lvs sometimes mainly crowded near the base, sometimes more distributed along the stem, the sheaths glabrous or sometimes sparsely ciliate; ligule a band of hairs less than 0.5 mm; blades ascending or spreading, 2-8 cm נ2-4 mm, usually rather thick, with thickened, usually whitish-cartilaginous margins; primary panicle soon long-exsert, 3-6 cm, ovoid with spreading branches; spikelets finely hairy, ellipsoid, 0.9-1.6 mm; first glume broadly ovate to subrotund, a fourth or a third as long; second glume and sterile lemma blunt, distinctly shorter than the fr; autumnal phase densely tufted, 1 dm, the blades scarcely reduced, the panicles half as large, equaling or somewhat surpassing the lvs; 2n=18. Damp sandy soil of the coastal plain; se. Va. to Fla., La., the W.I., and C. Amer. (P. albomarginatum; P. trifolium; Dichanthelium dichotomum var. t.) Apparently confluent with no. 31 [Panicum ensifolium Elliott].

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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