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Dichanthelium is a genus of plants in the grass family (Poaceae) composed of about 72 species of caespitose, sometimes rhizomatous, perennials.[1] The genus is widespread throughout a large region of the Americas and its various species occur in a wide variety of diverse terrestrial habitats. Dichanthelium has only modest economic value but its various species sometimes have significant ecological functions. It is superficially similar to the grass genus Panicum but is well distinguished from Panicum by numerous morphological characteristics and Dichanthelium appears as a separate clade in phylogenetic molecular analyses.
Description
[edit]Geographic Range
[edit]Brown and Smith[2], state that Dichanthelium species are:
except for the Hawaiian section Turfosa, all American, ranging from southern Canada in North America to central Argentina, a latitudinal range of about 90 degrees. The center of most abundance of plants and species is southeastern United States, but they are common in the eastern Americas from New England to northern South America, Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies. They extend in small numbers to the Pacific coast of the United States and to Argentina.
In addition to the geographic range as listed above, four species are endemic to Hawaii[3] and the genus has escaped from cultivation and grows wild in various regions of Europe[4][5], Russia[6], and China.[7]
Relationship to Panicum
[edit]Taxonomy
[edit]Ecology
[edit]Cultural Uses
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Freckmann, R.W. and M.G. Lelong. 2003. Dichanthelium published in Barkworth et al. (eds.), Flora of North America, Vol. 25, viewed 30 December 2012 at Grass Manual on the Web.
- ^ Brown, W.V. and B.N. Smith. 1975. The genus Dichanthelium (Gramineae). Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 102(1): 10–13. Abstract
- ^ Baldwin, B.G. and W.L. Wagner. 2010. Hawaiian angiosperm radiations of North American origin. Annals of Botany 105(6): 849–878. PDF
- ^ Lonati, M., A. Gorlier, D. Ascoli, R. Marzano, and G. Lombardi. 2009. Response of the alien species Panicum acuminatum to disturbance in an Italian lowland heathland. Botanica Helvetica 119(2): 105–111. Abstract
- ^ Verloove, F. and J. Lambinon. 2008. Deux graminées introduites peut-être méconnues, nouvelles pour la flore française: Bothriochloa laguroides et Dichanthelium acuminatum subsp. lindheimeri (Poaceae: Panicoideae). Le Monde des Plantes 497: 1–4. PDF
- ^ Czerepanov, S.K. 2007. Vascular Plants of Russia and Adjacent States (the Former USSR). Cambridge, United Kingdom; Cambridge University Press. Page 381.
- ^ Wu, S.-H., H.-T. Sun, Y.-C. Teng, M. Rejmánek, S.-M. Chaw, T.-Y. A. Yang, and C.-F. Hsieh. 2010. Patterns of plant invasions in China: Taxonomic, biogeographic, climatic approaches and anthropogenic effects. Biological Invasions 12: 2179–2206. PDF