Taxon: Paspalum distichum L.

• controversy over typification resolved in Taxon 32:281. 1983
• review history of nomenclature proposal concerning this name from the Smithsonian Institution's database

Common names:

• couch paspalum   (Source: Weed CIBA ) – English
  
• eternity grass   (Source: Food Feed Crops US ) – English
  
• ginger grass   (Source: Pl Res SEAs ) – English
  
• joint grass   (Source: Websters Dict ) – English
  
• knotgrass   (Source: World Econ Pl ) – English
  
• Mercer grass   (Source: F NZeal ) – English
  
• seaside millet   (Source: Websters Dict ) – English
  
• Thompson grass   (Source: F NAmer ) – English
  
• water couch   (Source: Weed CIBA ) – English
  
• water-finger grass   (Source: BSBI ) – English
  
• moddeid   (Source: F Egypt ) – Arabic
  
• shuang sui que bai   (Source: F ChinaEng ) – Transcribed Chinese
  
• kishū-suzume-no-hie   (Source: Grass Japan ) – Japanese Rōmaji
  
• grama-de-Joanópolis   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – Portuguese
  
• capim-arame   (Source: D. Groth, p.c. 2005) – Portuguese (Brazil)
  
• grama-braba   (Source: D. Groth, p.c. 2005) – Portuguese (Brazil)
  
• grama-da-praia   (Source: D. Groth, p.c. 2005) – Portuguese (Brazil)
  
• grama-doce   (Source: D. Groth, p.c. 2005) – Portuguese (Brazil)
  
• grama-rasteira-da-praia   (Source: D. Groth, p.c. 2005) – Portuguese (Brazil)
  
• grama colorada   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – Spanish
  
• gramilla blanca   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – Spanish
  

More:

see MMPND for additional names in foreign scripts

Economic importance:

• Harmful organism host: crop diseases   (mostly of rice fide WorldWeeds 568. 1997)
  
• Harmful organism host: crop pests   (mostly of rice fide WorldWeeds 568. 1997)
  
• Environmental: erosion control   (fide Grass SAfr; Pl Res SEAs 4:180. 1992; Invasive Pl Spec)
  
• Animal food: fodder   (fide Pl Res SEAs 4:180. 1992)
  
• Animal food: forage   (fide Pl Res SEAs 4:180. 1992)
  
• Vertebrate poisons: mammals   (fide Econ Pl Aust)
  
• Weed: potential seed contaminant   (fide Atlas WWeed; Invasive Pl Spec)
  

More:

View toxicology references for Paspalum distichum from FDA Poisonous Plant Database

View ethnobotanical data from Moerman's Native American Ethnobotany Database

Distributional range:

• NORTHERN AMERICA (Check conservation status in U.S. & Canada in NatureServe Explorer database)
  Northeastern U.S.A.: United States - New Jersey
  North-Central U.S.A.: United States - Kansas [s.], Missouri, Oklahoma
  Northwestern U.S.A.: United States - Idaho [w.], Oregon, Washington
  Southeastern U.S.A.: United States - Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky [w.], Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia
  South-Central U.S.A.: United States - New Mexico, Texas
  Southwestern U.S.A.: United States - Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah
  Northern Mexico: Mexico - Baja Norte, Baja Sur, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi, Sonora, Zacatecas
  Southern Mexico: Mexico - Aguascalientes, Chiapas, Federal District, Guanajuato, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Mexico, Michoacan, Morelos, Oaxaca, Puebla, Queretaro, Tabasco, Veracruz
• SOUTHERN AMERICA
  Caribbean: Cuba; Dominica; Grenada; Guadeloupe; Hispaniola; Jamaica; Martinique; Puerto Rico; St. Lucia; St. Vincent and Grenadines - St. Vincent
  Mesoamerica: Costa Rica; El Salvador; Guatemala; Honduras; Nicaragua
  Northern South America: French Guiana; Guyana; Suriname; Venezuela
  Brazil: Brazil - Bahia, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Para, Parana, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Sao Paulo, Sergipe
  Western South America: Bolivia; Colombia; Ecuador; Peru
  Southern South America: Argentina; Chile; Paraguay; Uruguay

• AFRICA
  Macaronesia: Portugal - Azores, Madeira Islands; Spain - Canary Islands
  Northern Africa: Algeria; Egypt; Libya; Morocco; Tunisia
  South Tropical Africa: Zimbabwe
  Southern Africa: Lesotho; Namibia; South Africa - Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West, Northern Cape, Western Cape; Swaziland
  Western Indian Ocean: Mauritius
• ASIA-TEMPERATE
  Arabian Peninsula: Saudi Arabia
  Western Asia: Cyprus; Egypt - Sinai; Iran; Iraq; Israel; Lebanon; Syria; Turkey
  Caucasus: Azerbaijan
  China: China - Anhui, Fujian, Guangxi, Hainan, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Shandong, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang
  Eastern Asia: Japan - Kyushu, Ryukyu Islands, Shikoku; Taiwan
• ASIA-TROPICAL
  Indian Subcontinent: Bangladesh; India - Assam, Bihar, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal; Nepal; Pakistan; Sri Lanka
  North Indian Ocean: India - Andaman and Nicobar
  Indo-China: Laos; Thailand; Vietnam
  Malesia: Indonesia; Malaysia; Philippines
• AUSTRALASIA
  Australia: Australia
  New Zealand: New Zealand
• EUROPE
  Northern Europe: United Kingdom
  East Europe: Ukraine - Krym
  Southeastern Europe: Albania; Bulgaria; Croatia; Greece [incl. Crete]; Italy [incl. Sardinia, Sicily]; Slovenia
  Southwestern Europe: France [incl. Corsica]; Portugal; Spain [incl. Baleares]
• PACIFIC
  Northwestern Pacific: Micronesia

• exact native range obscure, probable origin neotropics

References:

• 't Mannetje, L. & R. M. Jones, eds. 1992. Forages. In: Faridah Hanum, I. & L. J. G. van der Maesen, eds., Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). 4:180.
• Adams, C. 1972. Flowering plants of Jamaica.
• Allan, H. H. B. et al. 1961–. Flora of New Zealand.
• Botanical Society of the British Isles. BSBI taxon database (on-line resource).
• Boulos, L. 1999–. Flora of Egypt.
• Brako, L. & J. L. Zarucchi. 1993. Catalogue of the flowering plants and gymnosperms of Peru. Monogr. Syst. Bot. Missouri Bot. Gard. 45.
• Brummitt, R. K. 1983. Report of the Committee for Spermatophyta: 25. Taxon 32:281. [proposal to reject P. distichum L. not recommended, lectotypification also fixed].
• CIBA-GEIGY, Basel, Switzerland. Documenta CIBA-GEIGY (Grass weeds 1. 1980, 2. 1981; Monocot weeds 3. 1982; Dicot weeds 1. 1988)
• Catasús Guerra, L. J. 2002. Las gramíneas (Poaceae) de Cuba, II. Cavanillesia Altera 3:1–163.
• Dassanayake, M. D. & F. R. Fosberg, eds. 1980–. A revised handbook to the flora of Ceylon.
• Davidse, G. et al., eds. 1994. Flora mesoamericana.
• Davis, P. H., ed. 1965–1988. Flora of Turkey and the east Aegean islands. [rejects as nom. confus., accepting P. paspalodes (Michx.) Scribn.].
• Euro+Med Editorial Committee. Euro+Med Plantbase: the information resource for Euro-Mediterranean plant diversity (on-line resource).
• Exell, A. W. et al., eds. 1960–. Flora zambesiaca.
• FNA Editorial Committee. 1993–. Flora of North America.
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 2010. Ecocrop (on-line resource).
• Forzza, R. C. et al., coord. Lista de espécies da flora do Brasil (on-line resource).
• George, A. S., ed. 1980–. Flora of Australia.
• Germishuizen, G. & N. L. Meyer, eds. 2003. Plants of southern Africa: an annotated checklist. Strelitzia 14.
• Gibbs-Russell, G. E. et al. 1990. Grasses of southern Africa. Mem. Bot. Surv. S. Africa vol. 58.
• Groth, D. 2005. pers. comm. [re. Brazilian common names].
• Herrera-Arrieta, Y. 2001. Las Gramíneus de Durango.
• Holm, L. et al. 1979. A geographical atlas of world weeds.
• Holm, L. et al. 1997. World weeds: natural histories and distribution. 568.
• Howard, R. 1974–1989. Flora of the lesser Antilles.
• Hubbard, C. E. & R. E. Vaughan. 1940. The grasses of Mauritius and Rodriguez.
• Koning, R. de & M. S. M. Sosef. 1985. The Malesian species of Paspalum L. (Gramineae). Blumea 30:295–297.
• Koyama, T. 1987. Grasses of Japan and its neighboring regions.
• Lazarides, M. & B. Hince. 1993. CSIRO Handbook of Economic Plants of Australia.
• León (J. S. Sauget) & Alain (E. E. Liogier). 1946–1962. Flora de Cuba.; suppl. 1969
• Liogier, H. A. & L. F. Martorell. 2000. Flora of Puerto Rico and adjacent islands: a systematic synopsis, ed. 2.
• Markle, G. M. et al., eds. 1998. Food and feed crops of the United States, ed. 2.
• McVaugh, R. 1983–. Flora Novo-Galiciana.
• Migahid, A. M. 1988–1990. Flora of Saudi Arabia, ed. 3.
• Nasir, E. & S. I. Ali, eds. 1970–. Flora of [West] Pakistan. [rejects as nom. confus., accepting P. paspalodes (Michx.) Scribn.].
• Porcher, M. H. et al. Searchable World Wide Web Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database (MMPND) (on-line resource).
• Rehm, S. 1994. Multilingual dictionary of agronomic plants.
• Renvoize, S. A. & W. D. Clayton. 1980. (528) Proposal to reject the name Paspalum distichum L. Syst. Nat. ed. 10,2:855 (1759). Taxon 29:339–340.
• Sell, P. & G. Murrell. 1996–. Flora of Great Britain and Ireland.
• Sreekumar, P. V. & V. J. Nair. 1991. Flora of Kerala - grasses.
• Standley, P. C. & J. A. Steyermark. 1946–1976. Flora of Guatemala.
• Stevens, W. D. et al., eds. 2001. Flora de Nicaragua. Monogr. Syst. Bot. Missouri Bot. Gard. 85(1-3).
• Tovar, Ó. 1993. Las Gramíneas (Poaceae) del Perú. Ruizia 13:360–361.
• Virginia Botanical Associates. Digital atlas of the Virginia flora (on-line resource).
• Weber, E. 2003. Invasive plant species of the world: a reference guide to environmental weeds.
• Wu Zheng-yi & P. H. Raven et al., eds. 1994–. Flora of China (English edition).
• Zuloaga, F. O. et al. 1994. Catalogo de la familia Poaceae en la Republica Argentina. Monogr. Syst. Bot. Missouri Bot. Gard. 47.
• Zuloaga, F. O. et al. 2003. Catalogue of New World grasses (Poaceae): III. Subfamilies Panicoideae, Aristidoideae, Arundinoideae, and Danthonioideae. Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 46:463.
• Webster's third new international dictionary.

More:

Search AGRICOLA article citation database for citations referencing Paspalum distichum.

Search NCBI's Entrez search engine for PubMed citations referencing Paspalum distichum.

Search Biodiversity Heritage Library for historical publications referencing Paspalum distichum.

Synonyms:

• (=) Digitaria paspalodes Michx.
  
• (=) Paspalum paspalodes (Michx.) Scribn.
  (previously associated with 1 accession)

Check other web resources for Paspalum distichum L.:

• PLANTS: USDA-NRCS Database of Plants of the United States and its Territories
• BONAP: North American Plant Atlas of the Biota of North America Program
• Flora del Conosur: Catálogo de las Plantas Vasculares del Conosur
• Flora of China: Online version from Harvard University
• AVH: Australia's Virtual Herbarium
• ABRS: Australian Biological Resources Study Flora of Australia online
• SIBIS: South African National Biodiversity Institute's (SANBI) Integrated Biodiversity System
• On-line Flora of Zimbabwe
• TROPICOS: Nomenclatural and Specimen Database of the Missouri Botanical Garden
• CNWG: Catalogue of New World Grasses Searchable Database
• Grass Manual on the Web: Manual of Grasses for North America North of Mexico
• World Grass Species-Descriptions: Morphological species description from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• AusGrass2: Australian grass data from Bryan K. Simon’s on-line database
• Mansfeld: Mansfeld's World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops
• ePIC: Electronic Plant Information Centre of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• AGRICOLA: Article Citation Database or NAL Catalog of USDA's National Agricultural Library
• Entrez: NCBI's search engine for PubMed citations, GenBank sequences, etc.

Images:

• GRIN Images of germplasm accessions.
• Spikelets and/or florets: U.S. National Seed Herbarium image

More:

• Check PlantSystematics.org for additional images
• Images Note: Be advised that their identity may be inaccurate. Proper identification of a plant may require specialized taxonomic knowledge or comparison with properly documented herbarium material.

Abbreviations & symbols in GRIN Taxonomy

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