Ctenium aromaticum

(Walter) Alph. Wood
Common names: Toothache grass
Endemic
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 25. Treatment on page 234.

Plants perennial; densely cespitose, without rhizomes. Culms 1-1.5 m, erect. Sheaths persistent, smooth to scabridulous, becoming fibrous at the base at maturity; ligules 0.8-2.9 mm; blades to 46 cm long, 5.1 mm wide, glabrous abaxially, scabrous adaxially, sometimes also pilose just above the ligules. Panicles with 1 branch; branches 5-15 cm, curved, axes extending slightly beyond the spikelets, distal spikelets reduced. Spikelets 8.5-11 mm. Lower glumes 1-2.1 mm; upper glumes 4.8-6.1 mm, bidentate, with a row of conspicuous glands on either side of the midveins, awns 3.5-4 mm, strongly divergent, often almost perpendicular to it at maturity; lemmas of bisexual florets 4-5 mm, pilose on the lateral-veins, awned subapically, awns 3-4 mm, straight or divergent; distal lemmas sterile, unawned. 2n = unknown.

Distribution

Va., N.J., Ga., La., Ala., N.C., S.C., Miss., Fla.

Discussion

Ctenium aromaticum is a common species that grows in wet to moist pine flatwoods, savannahs, prairies, pitcher plant bogs, and ecotones between pine uplands and wet streamheads of the southeastern coastal plain. It furnishes fair forage, and the roots are spicy when freshly dug.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.

"decumbent" is not a number.

... more about "Ctenium aromaticum"
Mary E. Barkworth +
(Walter) Alph. Wood +
1 (?) +  and 3 (?) +
straight +
attached +
perpendicular +
multiple +, , +  and single +
0.3 cm3 mm <br />0.003 m <br /> (0.4 cm4 mm <br />0.004 m <br />) +
crescentic +
keeled +  and rounded +
pseudopetiolate +  and branching +
not fused +
intravaginal +, extravaginal +, branching +  and basal +
swelling +
membranous +
not pseudopetiolate +
0 cm0 mm <br />0 m <br /> (46 cm460 mm <br />0.46 m <br />) +
pilose +  and glabrous +
convolute +  and flat +
5.1 cm51 mm <br />0.051 m <br /> (?) +
falcate +  and pectinate +
5 cm50 mm <br />0.05 m <br /> (15 cm150 mm <br />0.15 m <br />) +
triangular +  and dome--shaped +
sometimes longer +
membranous +
Toothache grass +
100 cm1,000 mm <br />1 m <br /> (150 cm1,500 mm <br />1.5 m <br />) +
not woody +
Va. +, N.J. +, Ga. +, La. +, Ala. +, N.C. +, S.C. +, Miss. +  and Fla. +
not waisted +
capillary +
well-developed +
0.4 cm4 mm <br />0.004 m <br /> (0.5 cm5 mm <br />0.005 m <br />) +
sometimes longer +
2 +  and single +
round +  and compressed +
reduced +
conspicuous +
shorter or longer +
subtending +
unequal +
uncinate +
paniculate +  and racemose +
hollow +  and solid +
not absent +
aromatic +
bidentate +  and entire +
sometimes longer +
0.08 cm0.8 mm <br />8.0e-4 m <br /> (0.29 cm2.9 mm <br />0.0029 m <br />) +
membranous +
inconspicuous +
0.1 cm1 mm <br />0.001 m <br /> (0.21 cm2.1 mm <br />0.0021 m <br />) +
concealed +  and prominent +
2 +  and 1 +
dry +  and fleshy +
spikelike +
persistent +
smooth +  and scabridulous +
1 +  and 60 +
compressed +
0.85 cm8.5 mm <br />0.0085 m <br /> (1.1 cm11 mm <br />0.011 m <br />) +
1 +  and 3 +
compound +  and simple +
2 (?) +  and 3 (?) +
Gramineae +
Ctenium aromaticum +
species +
membranous +
0.48 cm4.8 mm <br />0.0048 m <br /> (0.61 cm6.1 mm <br />0.0061 m <br />) +
7 (?) +  and 13 (?) +
plant +  and cespitose +
aquatic +  and terrestrial +
dioecious +, monoecious +  and synoecious +