Sporobolus virginicus
Sporobolus pinetorum
marine couch, sand couch, seashore dropseed
Carolina dropseed
10-65 cm, erect to decumbent.
(30)45-120 (180) cm.
overlapping, margins ciliate, apices with tufts of hairs, hairs to 2 mm;
ligules 0.1-0.4 mm;
blades usually conspicuously distichous, 4-16 cm long, 2-5 mm wide, flat to loosely involute, glabrous abaxially, scabridulous adaxially, margins scabridulous.
shiny and indurate basally, glabrous or appressed hairy elsewhere, hairs to 5 mm, margins hyaline;
ligules 0.2-0.6 mm;
blades 20-50 cm long, 1.2-2(3) mm wide, flat, folded or involute, dark green, remaining so well into winter, glabrous on both surfaces or the adaxial surface sparsely hairy basally, margins scabridulous.
3-10 cm long, 0.4-1.6 cm wide, contracted, spikelike, dense;
primary branches 0.5-2 cm, appressed, spikelet-bearing to the base;
pedicels 0.2-1.4 mm, appressed.
15-30 cm long, 2-6 cm wide, open (contracted when immature), longer than wide, pyramidal to ovate, not diffuse;
lower nodes with 1-2(3) branches;
primary branches 2-8 cm, appressed or spreading to 50° from the rachis, not capillary, without spikelets on the lower 1/3;
secondary branches spreading;
pulvini hairy or glabrous;
pedicels 2-22 mm, longer than the spikelets, spreading, glabrous, scabridulous.
(1.8)2-3.2 mm, yellowish-white to purplish-tinged, sometimes grayish.
3.5-6.5 mm, purplish-brown.
subequal, ovate-oblong, membranous;
lower glumes 1.5-2.4 mm;
upper glumes 1.8-3(3.2) mm;
lemmas 2.1-3 mm, ovate to lanceolate, membranous, glabrous, acute;
paleas 2.1-3 mm, ovate, membranous;
anthers 3, 1-1.7 mm, yellowish.
linear-lanceolate, membranous;
lower glumes 2.4-4.5 mm, 0.6-0.83 times as long as the upper glumes;
upper glumes (3.5)4-6(6.5) mm, as long as or longer than the florets;
lemmas 3.4-4.3 mm, ovate to lanceolate, membranous, glabrous, acute;
paleas 3.4-4.4 mm, ovate, membranous, glabrous;
anthers 2.5-3.4 mm, purplish.
not known.
1.8-2.2 mm, fusiform, brown.
= 20, 30.
= unknown.
Sporobolus virginicus
Sporobolus pinetorum
Sporobolus virginicus grows on sandy beaches, sand dunes, and in saline habitats, primarily along the south-eastern coast, occasionally inland. Its range extends through Mexico and Central America to Peru, Chile, and Brazil. No fruits of this species have been found despite examination of several natural populations and over 200 herbarium specimens.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Sporobolus pinetorum grows in wet to moist pine woodlands, in soils seasonally to semi-permanently saturated, at elevations of 0-160 m. It is endemic to the southeastern United States.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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