Plants usually cespitose, rarely rhizomatous. Basal rosettes absent.
Culms 20-65 cm, decumbent to ascending even in spring, with hard,
cormlike bases; nodes puberulent to sparsely pubescent; internodes scabrous-puberulent
to papillose-hirsute; fall phase with geniculate to decumbent
culms, developing divaricate branches from the midculm nodes before
the primary panicles mature.
Cauline leaves 8-14; sheaths not overlapping, puberulent
to papillose-hirsute, margins ciliate; ligules 0.1-1 mm, of hairs; blades 3-9
cm long, 4-8 mm wide, thick, firm, puberulent, sides parallel above
the rounded to truncate bases, margins with papillose-based cilia. Primary
panicles 3-13 cm long,
2-8 cm wide, exserted; branches ascending to divaricate at maturity;
pedicels appressed. Spikelets 3.4-4.4 mm long, 1.3-1.6
mm wide, narrowly obovoid-obpyriform, finely pubescent, hairs papillose-based,
bases long, narrow. Lower glumes 1.5-2 mm, attached about 0.2
mm below the upper glumes, partly or completely encircling the pedicels; upper
glumes about
0.3 mm shorter than the upper florets, purplish at the bases; lower
florets
sterile; upper florets with pointed, puberulent apices. 2n =
18 (J.K. Wipff, pers. com., 2001).
Dichanthelium nodatum grows in oak savannahs near the Gulf coast from
Texas to northeastern Mexico. The primary panicles are produced from April into
June (sometimes late August to November) and are at least partly open-pollinated;
the secondary panicles are produced from May into fall and are at least partly
cleistogamous.