Distichlis spicata |
Distichlis |
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alkali saltgrass (var. stricta), alkaline grass, coastal salt grass, desert saltgrass, inland saltgrass, marsh spikegrass, salt grass, seashore saltgrass, seashore saltgrass (var. spicata) |
saltgrass |
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Habit | Plants rhizomatous and sometimes stoloniferous. | Plants perennial; usually unisexual, occasionally bisexual; strongly rhizomatous and/or stoloniferous. |
Culms | 10-60 cm, usually erect, sometimes decumbent or prostrate. |
to 60 cm, usually erect, glabrous. |
Leaves | conspicuously distichous; lower leaves reduced to scalelike sheaths; upper leaf sheaths strongly overlapping; ligules shorter than 1 mm, membranous, serrate; upper blades stiff, glabrous, ascending to spreading, usually equaling or exceeding the pistillate panicles. |
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Blades | of upper leaves 1-8(20) cm, rigid and divaricate to lax and ascending, usually equaling or exceeding the pistillate panicles, varying with respect to the staminate panicles. |
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Inflorescences | terminal, contracted panicles or racemes, sometimes exceeding the upper leaves. |
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Spikelets | laterally compressed, with 2-20 florets; disarticulation of the pistillate spikelets above the glumes and below the florets, staminate spikelets not disarticulating. |
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Glumes | 3-7-veined; lemmas coriaceous, staminate lemmas thinner than the pistillate lemmas, 9-11-veined, unawned; paleas 2-keeled, keels narrowly to broadly winged, serrate to toothed, sometimes with excurrent veins; anthers 3. |
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Caryopses | 2-5 mm, tapered or truncate. |
glabrous, free from the palea at maturity, brown, x = 10. |
Pistillate | panicles 1-7 cm, often congested, with 2-20 spikelets.; pistillate spikelets 5-20 mm long, 4-7 mm wide, with 5-20 florets; lower glumes 2-3 mm; upper glumes 3-4 mm; lemmas 3.5-6 mm; paleas with serrate keels. |
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Staminate | panicles and spikelets similar to the pistillate panicles and spikelets, but the lemmas somewhat thinner in texture and the paleas not bowed-out. |
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Anthers | 3-4 mm. |
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2n | = 40. |
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Distichlis spicata |
Distichlis |
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Distribution |
AL; AZ; CA; CO; CT; DE; FL; GA; IA; ID; IL; KS; LA; MA; MD; ME; MN; MO; MS; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TX; UT; VA; WA; WI; WY; HI; AB; BC; MB; NB; NS; NT; ON; PE; SK
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AL; AZ; CA; CO; CT; DE; FL; GA; IA; ID; IL; KS; LA; MA; MD; ME; MN; MO; MS; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TX; UT; VA; WA; WI; WY; HI; AB; BC; MB; NB; NS; NT; ON; PE; SK |
Discussion | Distichlis spicata grows in saline soils of the Western Hemisphere and Australia. Numerous infraspecific taxa have been recognized in the past, but none appears to be justified. Recent North American accounts of Distichlis have usually recognized plants from maritime coasts as distinct from those growing inland, supposedly having more congested inflorescences, but the range of variation is similar in the two habitats. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Distichlis, a genus of about five species, grows in saline soils of the coasts and interior deserts of the Western Hemisphere and Australia. All the species grow in South America, but only one, Distichlis spicata, is found in North America. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 25. | FNA vol. 25, p. 24. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Distichlis | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae |
Subordinate taxa | ||
Name authority | (L.) Greene | Raf. |
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