Plants perennial; cespitose. Culms 100-200 cm,
stout, erect; nodes glabrous. Sheaths pubescent; ligules
1.9-2.2 mm, brown; blades 30-90 cm long, 1-3 cm wide, flat, glabrous,
pubescent behind the ligules. Panicles terminal, with 10-20 racemosely
arranged branches; branches 3-15 cm, spreading to diverging; branch
axes 1-1.7 mm wide, winged, wings narrower than the central section, terminating
in a spikelet. Spikelets 2.2-3.2 mm long, 1.8-2.4 mm wide, paired, appressed
to or diverging from the branch axes, obovate, brown. Lower glumes absent;
upper glumes and lower lemmas glabrous or variously short pubescent,
5-veined, margins entire; upper florets 2.5-2.7 mm, brown. 2n
= 36, 40, 54, 80.
Paspalum virgatum is native from Mexico to South America. It has been
introduced to the southeastern United States, where it grows primarily in disturbed
areas and cultivated fields.