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Western Wetland Flora

Field Office Guide to Plant Species

Alkali Sacaton
Sporobolus airoides (Torr.) Torr.

JPG -- Species Photo JPG -- Distribution Map

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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U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/plants/florawe/species/2/sporairo.htm
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