Sporobolus virginicus
Sporobolus silveanus
marine couch, sand couch, seashore dropseed
Silveus' dropseed
10-65 cm, erect to decumbent.
70-120 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 4 mm;
ligules 0.2-0.8 mm;
blades 15-52 cm long, 1-2.5 mm wide, flat, folded or involute, bluish-green, remaining so well into winter, glabrous on both surfaces, 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.
21-50 cm long, 5-12(15) cm wide, longer than wide, open, not diffuse, pyramidal to ovate, with few spikelets;
lower nodes with 1-2(3) branches;
primary branches 6-20 cm, ascending, spreading 20-50° from the rachis, not capillary, without spikelets on the lower 1/4–1/2;
secondary branches appressed to loosely spreading;
pulvini glabrous;
pedicels 3-8(14) mm, longer or shorter than the spikelets, appressed, glabrous, scabrous.
(1.8)2-3.2 mm, yellowish-white to purplish-tinged, sometimes grayish.
4.5-7(7.2) mm, purplish.
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.
subequal to unequal, linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, membranous;
lower glumes 3-4.6 mm, 0.6-0.9 times as long as the upper glumes;
upper glumes 4-7.2 mm, from slightly shorter to longer than the spikelets;
lemmas 4.4-6.5 mm, lanceolate, membranous, glabrous, acuminate to acute;
paleas 4.5-6.7 mm, lanceolate, membranous, glabrous;
anthers 3, 3.5-5 mm, purplish.
not known.
1.8-2.2 mm, obovoid, laterally flattened, light brownish.
= 20, 30.
= unknown.
Sporobolus virginicus
Sporobolus silveanus
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 silveanus is restricted to the southeastern United States. It grows in wet to mesic pine woodlands and adjoining glades and barren openings, and in black-land prairies, at elevations of 5-200 m.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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