Spartina foliosa
Spartina patens
California cord grass, Pacific cordgrass
marshhay cordgrass, salt meadowgrass, salt-meadow cord grass, saltmarsh hay, spartine etalee
to 150 cm tall, to 10 mm thick, erect, terete, solitary or in small clumps, succulent, glabrous, often with adventitious roots from the lower nodes, having an unpleasant, sulphurous odor when fresh.
15-150 cm tall, 1-6 mm thick, usually solitary, indurate.
mostly glabrous, throats sparsely pilose, lower sheaths sometimes somewhat wrinkled;
ligules 1-2 mm;
blades 8-12 mm wide, flat to loosely involute, glabrous, margins usually smooth, sometimes slightly scabrous, apices acuminate.
glabrous or mostly glabrous, throats occasionally short-pilose;
ligules about 0.5(1) mm;
blades 10—50 cm long, 0.5-4(7) mm wide, involute when fresh, abaxial surfaces glabrous, adaxial surfaces scabrous, margins strongly scabrous;
blade of the second leaf below the panicles 4-40 cm long, 0.5-3(7) mm wide.
12-25 cm, with 3-25 branches, smoothly cylindrical, often partially enclosed in the uppermost sheath;
rachises twisted, glabrous;
branches 2-8 cm, usually closely appressed and twisted, lower branches noticeably longer and less closely imbricate than the upper branches, all branches with axes rarely extending past the distal spikelets, with 8-30 spikelets.
3-15 cm, not smooth in outline even if the branches appressed, with 2-15 branches;
branches 1-7 cm, alternate, differing only slightly in length and spacing within a panicle, appressed to strongly divergent, with 10-30 spikelets.
8-25 mm, usually appressed, often appearing twisted, those on the lower branches usually less closely imbricate than those on the upper branches.
7-12 mm, linear lanceolate to ovate lanceolate.
usually curved, sides and keels glabrous, scabrous, or hispid, apices acuminate to obtuse or rounded;
lower glumes 6-12 mm;
upper glumes 8-25 mm, 1-veined;
lemmas glabrous or sparsely appressed pubescent on the sides, keels glabrous, apices obtuse, rounded or lobed;
paleas slightly exceeding the lemmas, thin, papery, glabrous, apices usually rounded, rarely acuminate;
anthers 3-6 mm.
glabrous or sparsely hispidulous on the sides, keels scabrous to hispidulous, trichomes (1)1.5-2.5 mm, apices acuminate;
lower glumes 3-8 mm, linear;
upper glumes 7-12 mm, with 2 lateral veins, these on the same side of the keel, usually hispid, apices acuminate, acute, or obtuse;
lemmas mostly glabrous or sparsely hispidulous, keels hispid distally, apices obtuse, rounded, or obscurely lobed;
anthers 3-5 mm, well-filled, indehiscent.
= 60.
= 28, 35, 42, 56.
Spartina foliosa
Spartina patens
Spartina foliosa grows in the intertidal zone from northern California to Baja California, Mexico. Populations in San Francisco Bay are threatened by various introduced species of Spartina. Of particular concern is S. alterniflora, which forms hybrids with S. foliosa that have a broader ecological amplitude than either parent. In California, S. foliosa is often confused with S. densiflora, which is also established in some regions, but S. foliosa differs from that species in being rhizomatous and having softer culms and wider leaf blades.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Spartina patens grows in coastal salt and brackish waters. It is native to the east coast of North and Central America, extending through the Caribbean Islands to the north coast of South America, but is now established at scattered locations on the west coast of Canada and the United States. On the east coast, it is usually one of the dominant components of coastal salt marshes, frequently extending from the dry, sandy beach above the intertidal zone well up into the drier portions of the marshes. The older inland collections are from areas associated with brine deposits or saline soils, but there is some indication that the species' range is increasing inland because of the use of salt to de-ice roads in winter.
The inflorescence of Spartina patens is similar to that of S. bakeri when young, but its inflorescence branches usually diverge at maturity, whereas those of 5. bakeri remain appressed.
Spartina patens is probably one of the parents of S. xcaespitosa, S. pectinata being the other. Unlike S. xcaespitosa, S. patens grows in both disturbed and undisturbed habitats.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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