• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content

Plants of New Jersey

Welcome to the Flora of New Jersey Project

  • Home
  • About
    • Project Member Profiles
    • About FNJP Personnel
  • Noteworthy Collections
  • The Project
    • Committees
      • The Atlas Committee
      • The Education and Outreach Committee
      • The Manual Committee
      • The Nomenclature Committee
    • Information for Contributors
  • The Flora of New Jersey
    • Familes and Genera Recognized in New Jersey
    • How to Access The Flora
    • Reference Citations
  • Events
  • Downloads
    • Download Files
    • FNJ Web Topics Archive
      • Ecological Rambles & Periodic Publications Archive
      • Guess that Plant Archive
      • Plant of the Month Archive
    • Meeting Minutes
    • Newsletters
    • Articles
  • Join Us
    • Become a Member
    • Contact FNJP
    • Links
  • Photo Gallery

Dichanthelium caerulescens (Hackel ex Hitchcock) Correll

August 12, 2013 by njflora

Order: Poales

Family: Poaceae

Dicanthelium caerulescens (Hackel ex Hitchcock) Correll

Synonymy: Panicum caerulescense Hack. Ex. Hitchc.; Dichanthelium dichotomum (L.) Gould var. roanokense (Ashe) R. LeBlond; Panicum dichotomum L. var. roanokense LeLong; Panicum roanokense Ashe; Panicum dichotomum L. var. ramulosum (Torr.) LeLong; Dichanthelium dichotomum (L.) Gould var. ramulosum(Torr.) R. LeBlond

Lower Taxa: none

Origin: Native

Habit: Perennial, rosette forming grass

Habitat: Moist soils; Open marsh edges to sparse moist woodlandsdichanthelium caerulescens

Range: Found on NJ’s Outer Coastal Plain, specifically the Coastal Strip

Frequency: Infrequent, very limited dispersal 

Rank/Status: SH/G5

Wetland Status: FACW

Flowering & Reproduction: Early Summer, June-early July, vernal panicles, autumnal panicles late July-September; spikelets mature within month of pollination

Comments: The bluish rosette panic grass has a distinct blue color to its stems and leaves, providing the basis for its common and Latin name.  The plant is similar to the Dichanthelium dichotmum group and has been lumped by a number of recent authors with this species. The Flora of New Jersey does not concur with this lumping and continues earlier taxonomic tradition. 

The FNJP separates Dichanthelium caerulescense as a distinct species. The plant’s upright habit with coarser stem and leaves than the typical rosette panic grass provides distinct morphological characters to separate this species from the Dichanthelium dichotmum group.  Its coastal wetland habitat preference is also a distinction to be used to separate from the Dichanthelium dichotmum group.

The New Jersey Natural Heritage Program lists the plant as a historic occurrence. Mary Hough (1983) said it was known from extant sightings in the 1970s and 1980s.  The FNJP author’s last sighting of this unusual species was in the late 1980s when a specimen was collected in New Gretna’s brackish marshes near Jobs Creek, coincidently alongside a plant once considered historic and unseen for more than a century!

Reference Specimen: Ocean Co., New Gretna, Joseph Arsenault #1514, gravel access road to Oak Island. 9/16/1984.

Current distribution map reflects author, Chrysler herbarium specimens and Mary Hough, 1983. 

JRA, 8/2013

Share

Filed Under: Dichanthelium

Copyright © 2023 · Flora of New Jersey Project