Panicum obtusum H.B.K.
Vinemesquite

Habit: 		Tufted perennial from a knotted crown with a more or less tufted rootstock,
		producing long creeping stolons, sometimes 2 m. long, with long internodes and swollen,
		conspicuous, woolly nodes.
Culms: 		Compressed, 20-80 cm. tall, decumbent at the base, glabrous.
Blades: 	Leaf-blades 3-20 cm. long, 2-7 mm. wide, those of the stolons shorter and
		narrower, involute towards the tip, glabrous or nearly so.
Sheaths: 	Shorter than the internodes, the very lowest pubescent.
Ligule: 	Membranous, about 1 mm. long.
Inflorescence: 	Panicle included or short-exserted, 3-12 cm. long, about 1 cm. wide, densely flowered.
Spikelets: 	Short-pedicelled, 3.2-3.8 mm. long, about 1.5-1.8 mm. and about 2 mm.
		thick, obovoid, secund, glabrous, green at first, later turning brownish,
		often in pairs along one side of the rachis.
Glumes: 	First about one fourth shorter than the spikelet, 3-nerved, sometimes
		5-nerved, second glume and sterile lemma subequal, the second glume 5-7-nerved,
		sometimes 9-nerved.  Sterile lemma 5-7-nerved subtending a palea and staminate flower.
Fruit: 		About 3-3.5 mm. long, 1.5-1.7 mm. wide, subacute, smooth and shining,
		slightly minutely pubescent near the apex.
Habitat:  	Sandy and gravelly soil, banks of streams and ditches.
Kansas Range:	Southwest fourth.
Use: 		A perennial forage grass in the southwest.