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Velvet panicum

Dichanthelium scoparium

Also called Velvety Panic Grass, Broom Panic Grass

Velvet panicum
Photo: Robert H. Mohlenbrock. USDA SCS. 1991. Southern wetland flora: Field office guide to plant species. South National Techn, Public domain

Velvet panicum is a rhizomatous perennial grass native to the southeastern United States and the West Indies, forming clumps up to about 1.5 m tall in woodlands, savannas and disturbed ground. It is a hardy, undemanding native grass that suits naturalistic or wildlife plantings rather than formal borders.

Family
Poaceae (Grass family)
Grows as
Grass, Perennial
Light
Full sun, Part shade
Water
Water regularly while establishing, then allow moderate drying between waterings; it tolerates dry spells once established.
Soil
Well-drained soil, sandy or loamy, tolerant of poor and acidic soils.
Temperature
Hardy in warm temperate and subtropical conditions; frost tolerant, cold limit not precisely documented.
How easy
Easy
Native range
C. & E. U.S.A., Caribbean
Climate
temperate

About

Dichanthelium scoparium is a species of grass known by the common names velvet panicum, velvety panicgrass, and broom panicgrass. It is native to North America, where it occurs in the southeastern United States. It also occurs in the West Indies.

This rhizomatous perennial grass produces a basal rosette of leaves in the fall and winter and then erect stems the following spring. There are clumps of stems up to 1.5 meters tall. There are 7 to 11 hairy leaves up to 20 centimeters long by 2 wide on the stem. There are two types of inflorescence. The main panicle has flowers that open and are pollinated. There are also cleistogamous flowers that do not open and fertilize themselves. These develop later in the season. There are about 380,000 seeds per pound.

Other Dichanthelium plants

Needleleaf rosette grass · Tapered rosette grass · Bosc's panicgrass · Deertongue · Variable panicgrass · Blood panicgrass · Cypress panicgrass · Cypress Panicgrass · Hirst's panicgrass · Woolly Panicgrass · Openflower rosette grass · Leiberg's panicum

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Dichanthelium scoparium by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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