Scientific Name
Sporobolus cryptandrus (Torr.) A. Gray (Synonyms: Agrostis cryptandra)
Common Name(s)
Sand dropseed
Tribe / Family Name
Cynodonteae
Flowering Period
June to September
Symbol
SPCR
Description
Sand dropseed is a native warm-season perennial bunchgrass that reproduces readily from seeds and tillers. Culms usually range from 30–100 cm in height. Its inflorescence is a contracted to open panicle 15–40 cm long, somewhat oblong or pyramidal in shape, and totally or partially enclosed in the subtending sheath. Spikelets are usually up to 2.5 mm long, densely crowded along upper part of branches and imbricate, lead-gray to purplish, 1-flowered, and unawned; spikelets enclosed in sheaths occasionally cleistogamous and smaller. Ligules are a line of dense hairs up to 1 mm long.
General Info
This extremely drought-tolerant plant can be found in sandy soils and washes, sagebrush or shadscale vegetation, disturbed settings, along roadsides, pinyon-juniper woodlands, yellow pine forests, desert grasslands, prairie, foothills, and plains.
Similar Species
Sand dropseed may resemble other grasses with contracted or open panicle inflorescences and small florets, but the tuft of stiff, white hairs around the collars distinguishes sand dropseed from other grasses.
Picture of growth habit.
Inflorescence is a contracted to open panicle that can be somewhat or entirely enclosed by a subtending sheath.
Close-up picture of spikelet.
Close-up picture of hairy ligule and collar.
Illustration of sand dropseed. USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Hitchcock, A.S. (rev. A. Chase). 1950. <i>Manual of the grasses of the United States.</i> USDA Miscellaneous Publication No. 200. Washington, DC.