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Hall's Panicum

Scientific Name: Panicum hallii Vasey
Common Name: Hall's Panicum

Morphological Characteristics:

Habit- native warm season perennial grass reaching 20 to 80 centimeters tall; flowers April to November; reproduces by seed
Leaves- ligule a membrane about 0.2 millimeters long, ciliate with hairs to 1.3 millimeters long; blades glaucous, flat and rather stiff or sometimes lax and curling on drying, sparsely papillose-hirsute to glabrescent, 4 to 30 centimeters long and 2 to 10 millimeters broad; sheaths mostly equal to somewhat shorter than internodes, sparsely papillose-hirsute to glabrous
Inflorescence- Panicles usually well exserted, few to many branches, pyramidal; Spikelets on short appressed pedicles or occasionally spreading on capillary branchlets, glabrous, acute or acuminate, about 2.2-3.7 millimeters long and 1 to 1.5 millimeters wide
Fruit- caryopsis
Habitat and Range: scattered to abundant on sandy to clayey calcareous soils throughout all regions of Texas except the Pineywoods.

Conservation Use:

Why collect this plant? Texas Plant Materials Centers have identified this plant as having potential benefits to the following conservation practice standards: 645 Upland Wildlife Habitat Management; 550 Range Planting; 393 and 342 Critical Area Planting. Your assistance in collecting this plant helps support the NRCS conservation practice standards which are employed daily to conserve the natural resources of Texas!

Center Requesting Seed:

E. Kika de la Garza Plant Material Center

How to Collect Seed

  1. Identify native plant stands in your area. You can go to the following websites for helpful photos http://plants.usda.gov or http://www.noble.org/imagegallery/index.html or www.wildflower.org.
  2. Determine if seed is mature. Mature seed is typically dry and will easily separate from the seed head.
  3. Hand strip mature seed by grasping the bottom of the seed head then gently pulling away from the base of the plant. Deposit seed in a brown paper sack. Collect seed from a minimum of 30 to 50 plants.
  4. Label each collection as it is made so collections do not get mixed up. Information required includes: Collector’s name, number of plants collected, location (parish, city, highway, GPS coordinates), site description (soil type, slope, plants growing in association).
  5. Complete NRCS-ECS-580; Plant Collection Information Form and mail with collected seeds to the NRCS Plant Materials Center requesting the species.

E. Kika de la Garza Plant Materials Center
3409 N FM 1355
Kingsville, TX 78363

Helpful Tips

Look for superior plants that display differences in color, height, or forage abundance and record observations. Differences in growing site or location should be made into separate collections if they are separated by more than 1 mile between sites.

Photos:

Hall's Panicum
Hall’s panicum plant Hall’s panicum inflorescence Hall’s panicum plant

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NRCS Species for 2006 Plant Collections - Hall's Panicum (PDF; 425 KB)