Panicum capillare

Witchgrass at Watson, ACT

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Identification history

	Panicum capillare	12 Feb 2024	abread111
	Panicum effusum	3 Feb 2024	waltraud

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User's notes

In patches along road side; seed heads break off easily.

11 comments

abread111 wrote:

3 Feb 2024

I am assuming you checked that it is the perennial species...

waltraud wrote:

4 Feb 2024

I checked the widely spaced hairs at the leaf margins and of course the finely branched seed heads with single fruits. Will collect specimen and scan. Hairy Panic is a perennial warm season grass but I don't know how to check whether a grass is perennial or annual. So I check the floristic characteristics above ground to suggest a species.

abread111 wrote:

4 Feb 2024

Annuals pull out easily

waltraud wrote:

4 Feb 2024

Hm ... such as Serrated tussock? whether pulling out is easy or not easy seems a bit subjective to me; may be it can help as an additional feature to other characteristics as described above?

abread111 wrote:

4 Feb 2024

I meant particularly for hairy panic. The differences are a bit subtle. See sightings 4365124
and 4365121 The annual one is also commonly called hairy panic by the cropping people who have to deal with it.

waltraud wrote:

4 Feb 2024

sorry, Barb, the ST was a joke ... I often pull the perennial ST out easily when they are young and therefore find this characteristic not particularly useful. I will check the differences between P effusum and P capillare but what I can already see is that P capillare has wider leaf blades >5mm. I will take a sample just in case; there is only one P capillare record on CNM.

abread111 wrote:

4 Feb 2024

No! there are 1 P capillare + 30 - see Panicum capillare/hillmanii and some of these 30 are quite recent ones. There is a problem that the species/9640 comes up in Add a sighting but returns an error in the Quick Search.
@Tapirlord @natureguy can you investigate and get fixed please?
Barbara

waltraud wrote:

4 Feb 2024

Yes I tried search function for P. capillare and for P. hillmanii as well as P. capillare/hillmanii; the latter didn't give returns. Is this a species on its own or are the characteristics of the two so close that there it was not possible to differentiate from photos?
I will make an effort to collect samples tomorrow and measure and scan the leaves.

abread111 wrote:

4 Feb 2024

Yes, its apparently hard to differentiate them - both invasive annuals. See description in VicFlora https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/flora/taxon/fdbafeee-1653-4bc8-bf9b-72a2ce37e27d which points out the differences and the comment for Panicum hillmanii which mentions one difference.

icrawford@iinet.net.au wrote:

12 Feb 2024

Both collections key to P. capillare var. capillare: the wider-leaved (to 6.8 mm) material looks annual, as does the narrower leafed one (blades to 5.3 mm wide).
dimensions: spikelet 2.1–2.2 mm long;
lower glume 0.85–1.0 mm long, 3–5-n;
upper gl. 1.85–2.2 mm long, 7-n;
lower sterile lemma 1.5–1.85 mm long, 7-n;
lower palea to 1.0 mm long, white, membranous;
upper fertile lemma and palea to 1.35 mm long, and faintly striate.

waltraud wrote:

12 Feb 2024

many thanks Isobel
Barb would you please change id?

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