FIELD ID CHARACTERISTICS:
Look for rosette clumps of lance-shaped leaves, low to the ground and fuzzy stems with loose seed clusters.
Description: Clumping, perennial grass with soft, lance-shaped leaves and hairy stems.
Leaves: Lance-shaped leaves at plant base typically form a basal rosette of short blades.
Flowers/Fruit: Egg-shaped fruit in a loose panicle born on hairy stems with a leaf attached at the base of the panicle. Fruits are seeds enclosed in specialized structures. Flowering and fruiting May to October.
Habit and Range: Many species of Dichanthelium (rosette grass) tolerate drier conditions, but this genus can be found throughout the state in moist woods, wet fields, moist sandy soil, ditches, and edges of pocosins and pine wetlands.
Taxonomic Note: Some taxonomic confusion exists among Dichanthelium species, which are notoriously difficult to tell apart, but Weakley (2020) has a good key.
