Coleataenia anceps (Michx.) Soreng ssp. anceps

Beaked Cut Throat Grass; Beaked Panic Grass

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Beaked Panic Grass is a native perennial herb in the Grass family (Poaceae). It can be found throughout Alabama. Beaked Panic Grass grows in moist to mesic, often sandy soils in pine savannahs, in mixed pine-hardwood forests, in prairies, and on roadsides and other disturbed sites. It is usually found in moist habitats but is adaptable to a wide variety of soil moisture conditions. Beaked Panic Grass is a perennial warm season grass from stout, short and scaly rhizomes. The stems are erect, solitary or in small patches, and 1-3 feet in height. The leaves are alternate, lanceolate, flat, glabrous or pubescent above and pubescent below, with entire margins. The leaf sheaths are glabrous or pubescent forwards the top. The small ligule (a small membrane at the junction of the leaf sheath and blade) has an irregularly notched margin. Flowers are produced in terminal branched panicles. The panicles are open with short appressed branches. The subsessile spikelets are ellipsoid and glabrous. The upper glume and lower lemma are about equal in length, beaked, and gaping at the apex somewhat like a bird’s beak. The apex of the fertile lemmas have a small tuff of stiff hairs. The fruit is a grain. Beaked Panic Grass seed are consumed by a variety of bird species, and the foliage is eaten by deer and cattle.—A. Diamond.

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Native

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