Spartina foliosa
Spartina ×caespitosa
California cord grass, Pacific cordgrass
cordgrass, mixed cordgrass
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.
to 120 cm tall, 1-3 mm thick, indurate, solitary or in small, dense clumps.
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.
mostly glabrous, throats glabrous or short-pilose;
ligules 0.5-1 mm;
blades 8-56 cm long, 2-6(7) mm wide, usually involute, abaxial surfaces glabrous, adaxial surfaces glabrous or scabrous, margins strongly scabrous, blade of the second leaf below the panicles 8-56 cm long, 2-5(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.
9-20 cm, not smoothly cylindrical, with 3-9 branches;
branches 3-9 cm, appressed or spreading, with 20-50 spikelets.
8-25 mm, usually appressed, often appearing twisted, those on the lower branches usually less closely imbricate than those on the upper branches.
10-17 mm, 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, keels glabrous, hispid in whole or in part, or ciliate;
lower glumes 4-9 mm, acuminate or awned;
upper glumes 10-17 mm, exceeding the florets, keels hispid, lateral veins prominent, 1 on each side of the keel or 2-3 on 1 side of the keel, apices acuminate or awned;
lemmas glabrous or sparsely hispidulous, apices obtuse, rounded, obscurely lobed, or apiculate;
anthers 3-6 mm, poorly filled, indehiscent.
= 60.
= 60, 60+2.
Spartina foliosa
Spartina ×caespitosa
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 ×caespitosa is found in disturbed areas of the drier portions of salt and brackish marshes, at some distance above the intertidal zone. It occurs sporadically along the coast from Maine to Maryland, a region where its putative parents, S. pectinata and S. patens, are sympatric. None of the populations Mobberley (1956) examined was growing in undisturbed land.
Mobberley's (1956) investigations led him to conclude that the populations of S. ×caespitosa are polythetic in origin. Part of the evidence for his conclusion was the variability he observed. It is this variability that makes it necessary to bring out the hybrid at several locations in the key. Its distribution is, however, very limited, a fact that may be more useful for identification than any of the morphological characteristics examined.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
CA
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iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
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