Torpedograss

Torpedo grass, Panicum repens, is a hardy perennial grass occurring widely throughout Florida but not native to North America. Shoots, up to 1 m tall, arise from sturdy, creeping or floating rhizomes. The rhizomes are pointed with torpedo-like growing tips. Aerial stems are rigid, erect to leaning, with lower portions often wrapped in bladeless sheaths. The upper leaf sheaths are mostly glabrous with hairs usually restricted to the upper margins. The ligule (thin outgrowth at the junction of the leaf and leafstalk) is a short-ciliate membrane. Leaf blades are narrow, linear, stiffly ascending to 25 cm long and 0.6 cm wide. The inflorescence is a loose open terminal panicle 7-22 cm long with with few to many branches and stakled spikelets that are 2-3 mm long and approximately 1 mm wide, with flower parts white with yellow. The small seeds are smooth and whitish (Langeland and Burks 1998,CAIP, ISSG).