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.
