Perennial grasses, often with long creeping stolons which are thickly clothed with leaves bearing short blades, and erect stems. Spikes 1-sided, in pairs at the summit of the stem, or sometimes with an additional one a short distance below, or occasionally in scattered whorls, the rachis winged. Spikelets elliptic to lanceolate, obtuse or acute, glabrous or pubescent, singly disposed, articulated below the empty scales. Scales 3, the outer 2 membranous, 2-several-nerved, the third scale with its opening turned toward the rachis, chartaceous in flower, becoming indurated in fruit, enclosing a palet of similar texture and a perfect flower. Stamens 3. Styles distinct. Stigmas plumose. [Greek, in reference to the position of the spikelets.]

About 12 species, distributed in warm temperate and tropical regions. Type species: Paspalum platyculmum Thouar.

1. Anastrophus Compressus (Sw.) Schlecht. Flat Joint-Grass

Fig. 286

Milium compressum Sw. Prod. 24. 1788. Paspalum tristachyon Lam. 111. 1: 176. 1791. P. platycaule Poir. in Lam. Encycl. 5: 34. 1804. Paspalum compressum Ness, in Mart. Fl Bras.

2: 23. 1829. Anastrophus compressus Schlecht.; Doell, in

Mart. Fl. Bras. 22: 102. 1877.

Stolons numerous, leafy, sometimes 2° long. Culms 4'-3° tall, slender, compressed, glabrous; sheaths loose; blades glabrous, sometimes ciliate, obtuse, those of the culm 2'-4' long, 2"-4" wide, those of the stolons about 1' long, 1"-2" wide; racemes in pairs, approximate at the summit of the long and slender stalk, or sometimes with an additional one below, 1-4' long; spikelets about 1" long, obtuse or acute, the outer scales 3-5-nerved, or 2-4-nerved by the suppression of the mid-nerve.

Fields and roadsides, Virginia (?), Georgia and Florida to Louisiana. Widely distributed in tropical America. Carpet-grass. Louisiana-grass. Aug.-Sept.

2. Anastrophus Furcatus (Fluegge) Nash. Flat Crab-Grass

Fig. 287

Paspalus furcatus Fluegge, Gram. Monog. 114.

1810. Paspalum Elliottii S. Wats, in A. Gray, Man. Ed.

6, 629. 1890. Paspalum paspaloides Scribn. Mem. Torrey Club 5: 29, in part. 1894. Not Digitaria paspalodes Michx. 1803. A. paspaloides Nash, in Britton, Man. 75. 1901. Axonopus furcatus Hitchc. Rhodora 8: 205. 1906.

Culms 1°-3 1/2° tall; sheaths much compressed, keeled, glabrous or pubescent; blades 1° long or less, 3"-8" wide, linear, glabrous, ciliate on the margins, or hirsute on both surfaces; spikes ascending, 1'-6' long; spikelets 2"-3" long and about 3/4" wide, acute, the first scale 5-nerved, the second usually 4-nerved by the suppression of the midnerve, the third scale 1/2-2/3 as long as the others.

In fields and woods. Maryland to Florida, thence west to Texas. July-Aug.