Nowadays, when I hike among the shaded tree-lined paths of some park in New Jersey, i invariably encounter Microstegium vimineum as it grows in luxuriant carpets along the sides of the trail and into the deeper canopy.
This was at first the case last Thursday, when we went exploring in the Watchung Reservation, and I resigned myself to photographing more of the invasive grass.
Thus it was a pleasant surprise when I spotted an interesting grass nestled in the shady base of one of the trees. It had much larger leaves than stiltgrass, and it also had airy panicles that ended in tiny spikelets. The blades also had distinctive cordate bases, and were quite wide.
I managed to identify the species as Dichanthelium clandestinum, one of the rosette panic grasses.
This species lives in forests, and has an unusual flowering behavior.
Near the beginning of the season, it produces "normal" flowers which are pollinated when open ("chasmogamous"). Then later in the season, the same individual has closed flowers hidden in the sheaths that will be self-pollinated ("cleistogamous").
The evolutionary advantage of cleistogamy is that the grass does not need to expend a lot of energy into the production of flower accessory structures, and this mode of flowering seems to prevalent in some plants when they are stressed. However, its disadvantage is that it dampens genetic diversity in the population due to self-fertilization.
It was quite nice to find such a new species, and I'll be sure to keep my eyes open for more grasses from the genus Dichanthelium is future hikes.
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