Western Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Sporobolus airoides (Torr.) Torr.
- Family: Grass (Gramineae)
- Flowering: June-August
- Field Marks: This grass forms large clumps topped by broad, open panicles. The spikelets are 1-flowered, and neither the glumes nor the lemmas have awns.
- Habitat: Alkaline meadows.
- Habit: Stout perennial forming dense tufts.
- Stems: Upright, unbranched, up to 4 feet tall, usually hollow, smooth.
- Leaves: Alternate, elongated, narrow, crowded at the base of the plant and recurred, flat to inrolled, up to 1/6 inch wide, rough to the touch, hairy near the base; ligule a ring of hairs.
- Flowers: Borne in 1-flowered spikelets, with many spikelets forming a broad, open panicle up to 15 inches long; glumes pointed at the tip, smooth, awnless, up to 1/8 inch long; lemmas pointed at the tip, smooth, awnless, up to 1/8 inch long.
- Sepals: 0.
- Petals: 0.
- Stamens: 3.
- Pistils: Ovary superior, smooth.
- Grains: Obovoid, smooth.
- Notes: This is an important forage grass for domestic livestock.
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