Plants cespitose, with few culms per clump. Basal rosettes well-differentiated; blades ovate to lanceolate. Culms 15-50 cm tall (rarely taller), 0.3-0.8 mm thick, delicate, erect or ascending; nodes slightly swollen, often purplish or darker green than the internodes; internodes usually puberulent; fall phase branching profusely from the lower and midculm nodes, secondary branches and secondary panicles numerous, usually not greatly reduced. Cauline leaves 4-7; sheaths mostly puberulent or glabrous, margins finely ciliate; ligules 1.5-3 mm, of hairs; blades 2-4.5 cm long, 2-5 mm wide, ascending or spreading, occasionally involute, finely appressed-pilose adaxially, puberulent abaxially, bases rounded, margins finely whitish-scabridulous. Primary panicles 2.5-5.5 cm, 1/3-2/3 as wide as long, well-exserted; rachises and branches glabrous or sparsely puberulent (at least basally); ultimate branchlets and pedicels glabrous, somewhat viscid. Spikelets 0.8-1.1 mm, ellipsoid to nearly ovoid, often purplish, puberulent or subglabrous, obtuse or subacute. Lower glumes 1/4-1/3 as long as the spikelets, subacute; upper glumes shorter than the lower lemmas; lower florets sterile; upper florets 0.7-0.9 mm, ellipsoid, subacute. 2n = 18.

Dichanthelium wrightianum grows in moist, sandy or peaty areas, low pine savannahs, bogs, the margins of ponds, and cypress swamps, in the coastal plain from Massachusetts to Texas and Florida, extending to Cuba, Mexico, Central America, and northern South America.

Occasional specimens of Dichanthelium wrightianum, particularly those with subglabrous spikelets, closely resemble D. chamaelonche. Others suggest Dichanthelium ensifolium, and a few unusually robust specimens closely approach D. acuminatum subsp. longiligulatum. All of these taxa often grow together in the same habitats.

Plants cespitose, pale olive green, often purplish-tinged. Culms usually 30-100 cm, erect to ascending, sparsely pubescent to almost glabrous, hairs appressed, thin, silvery, papillose-based; nodes sparsely pubescent; fall phase branching extensively from the lower and midculm nodes, with conspicuous, flabellate fascicles of branches and reduced blades. Cauline sheaths shorter than the internodes, sparsely pilose to nearly glabrous, hairs papillose-based, occasionally with shorter soft hairs underneath, margins ciliate; midculm sheaths about 1/2 as long as the internodes; blades usually 2-7 cm long, 2-7 mm wide, relatively firm, ascending, spreading, or reflexed, abaxial surfaces densely and softly puberulent, adaxial surfaces glabrous or sparsely appressed-villous, sometimes with a few longer hairs intermixed. Primary panicles open, long-exserted, dense. Spikelets 1.1-1.5 mm, usually ellipsoid, densely short-pubescent.

Dichanthelium acuminatum subsp. leucothrix grows in low, sandy or peaty pine savannahs of the coastal plain. Its range extends through Mexico, the West Indies, and Central America to northern South America. It is closely related, and often sympatric with, the more common, glabrous subsp. longiligulatum.

Very similar to subsp. spretum vegetatively. Fall phase branching profusely from the lower and midculm nodes, producing dense fascicles of reduced branches, blades, and secondary panicles. Cauline blades green or purplish. Primary panicles 3-8 cm, to 3/4 as wide as long, normally expanded; branches numerous, slender, ascending, spikelets densely packed. Spikelets 1.1-1.5 mm, usually ellipsoid, puberulent.

Dichanthelium acuminatum subsp. longiligulatum is common, especially in moist pine savannahs and bogs of the coastal plain; it also grows inland to Tennessee, and in Mexico, the West Indies, Central America, and South America. It is similar to subsp. leucothrix, which grows in the same habitat, often at the same sites.

Culms densely tufted, 1-4 dm, ±erect to spreading or ascending from a geniculate base and becoming prostrate; pubescence on at least some of the sheaths and internodes bistratal as in nos. 21-23 [Panicum commonsianum Ashe; Panicum lancearium Trin.; & Panicum columbianum Scribn.], with intermingled short, crisp hairs and much longer, coarser, straighter ones, the lower internodes and sheaths evidently hairy, the upper often progressively less so; ligule a band of hairs 0.5-4 mm; blades erect or ascending, 2-6 cm נ2-5 mm, short-hairy on both sides; primary panicle ovoid, 2-5 cm, its axis puberulent to glabrate, with widely spreading branches; spikelets finely hairy, oblong-ovoid, 1.3-1.6 mm; first glume subrotund to triangular-ovate, a fourth to two-fifths as long; autumnal plants prostrate to erect, with numerous branches from all nodes, tending to form large mats, the blades slightly to evidently reduced, the infls varying from clusters of spikelets hidden among the lvs to exsert panicles 1-2 cm; 2n=18. (P. albemarlense; P. auburne; P. meridionale) Perhaps properly to be subordinated to P. acuminatum Sw.

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

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Culms loosely clustered, slender and weak, 1.5-4 dm, somewhat geniculate at base, ascending or spreading, finely short-hairy; sheaths finely hairy; ligule a band of hairs 2-3 mm; blades thin, spreading, 2-4 cm נ2-5 mm, finely hairy beneath, short-pilose or rarely glabrous above; primary panicle ovoid, 3-5 cm, its axis puberulent; spikelets finely hairy, ovoid, 0.8-1 mm; the first glume inconspicuous, a fourth or a third as long; autumnal phase more decumbent, with numerous short, ascending branches, the crowded lvs 1.5-2.5 cm, the short-exsert panicles 1-3 cm; 2n=18. Wet ground, beaches, and borders of ponds; coastal plain from Mass. to Fla., Tex., and Cuba. (Dichanthelium acuminatum var. w.; Dichanthelium w.)

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

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.