Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

VINE-MESQUITE

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Panicum obtusum Kunth

Pawnee County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 10-32 inches

Family: Poaceae - Grass Family

Flowering Period: May, June, August, September

Culms:

Erect or ascending, decumbent at base, hollow to nearly solid, glabrous, sometimes waxy, bluish-green; stolon nodes woolly, nearly glabrous on erect culms.

Blades:

Scattered along culm, flat, 1.6 to 8 inches long, 1/8 to 1/4 inch wide, firm, bluish-green, mostly glabrous or with few hairs on margins near base, often somewhat waxy; tip tapering to long point; stolon blades shorter, narrower.

Sheaths:

Shorter than internodes, mostly glabrous or with few hairs near ligule.

Ligules:

Membranous, 1/25 to 1/12 inch long.

Inflorescences:

Panicle, narrow, spike-like, 2 to 4.8 inches long, about .4 inch wide, included or short-exserted, densely flowered; primary branches erect or strongly ascending, generally not re-branched, .4 to 1.2 inch long.

Spikelets:

In 2 uneven rows on 1 side of rachis, short-stalked, egg-shaped, 1/8 to 1/6 inch long, about 1/12 inch wide, swollen, glabrous, initially green, later brownish, blunt-tipped; glumes nearly equal, elliptic to egg-shaped, about 3/4 as long as spikelet, 5-9-nerved; sterile lemma nearly equal to second glume, strongly-nerved, tip blunt or rounded.

Habitat:

Moist, disturbed sites, roadside ditches, prairies, pastures, stream banks; sandy or gravelly soil.

Distribution:

Southwest 1/4 and south-central Kansas

Origin:

Native

Forage Value:

Used for forage and sometimes for hay. Quail and doves eat the seeds.

Uses:

The Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache used the crushed seeds in meat gravy. The stolons were ground, mixed with soapweed, and used as a hair wash. Sometimes used to control soil erosion.

Comments:

Vine-mesquite is tufted, with long creeping stolons. The stolons are sometimes up to 6 feet long and have swollen, densely hairy nodes.

Vine-mesquite