This tetraploid (2n = 36) is widespread and locally abundant in east-central states, especially in thin woods and old fields on moist to damp fertile soils. D. clandestinum has sometimes been misidentified as latifolium, especially when incomplete specimens lack lower sheaths. It has papillose-based hairs on lower sheaths and lower leaf margins (versus absent in latifolium); blades are longer on average (10-28 cm versus 7-18 cm). Also, its spikelets tend to be shorter (2.4-3.6 mm versus 2.9-4.1 mm), as do its first glumes (1.2-1.8 mm versus 1.5-2.2 mm). Section Clandestina in general differs from section Macrocarpa (latifolium, boscii, commutatum, etc.) as follows (FNA 25, W): plants relatively robust, with spreading rhizomes 3-5 mm thick (versus with knotty rhizomes or caudices) and culms 0.5-1.5 m tall (versus 0.2-1.1 m), often forming dense axillary fascicles with secondary panicles enclosed in the sheaths (versus not producing dense axillary fascicles); cauline leaves 5-14 (versus 3-6); sheaths strongly papillose-hispid or softly pubescent and viscid (versus glabrous or pubescent but not viscid). Among North American species of Dichanthelium, tetraploids have been reported only in the following relatively robust, broad-leaved and large-seeded species: clandestinum (without diploids), boscii (also diploids), latifolium (also diploids) and xanthophysum (without diploids). However, the parental origins among these closely allied species remain somewhat obscure (Majure et al. 2023).