Sporobolus texanus Vasey Texas Dropseed Habit: Perennial in close hemispherical tufts. Culms: 30-60 cm. tall, erect or spreading, slender, wiry, branching below, rather slender from long rhizomes. Blades: Flat, involute in drying, firm. erect, 4-15 c. long, 1-4 mm. wide, smooth beneath, scabrous above. Sheaths: Longer than the internodes, rough, the lower papillose-pilose, pilose at the throat. Ligule: A ring of short hairs. Inflorescence: Panicle 15-30 cm. long, about as wide, open, rather diffuse, included at the base, the capillary scabrous branches, branchlets and long pedicels stiffly spreading, bearing one or a few spikelets on the outer half. Spikelets: 2.2-2.5 mm. long, linear-lanceolate, 1-flowered, awnless, rachilla disarticulating above the glumes. Glumes: Glabrous, the first narrow, acute, 1 mm. long, less than half as long as the second, which is acuminate and scabrous on the nerve. Lemmas: As long as the spikelet, scabrous on the one nerve. Palea: 2-nerved, nearly as long as its lemma, early splitting between the strong nerves with the ripening grain. Habitat: Plains, mesas, valleys, and salt marshes. July-August. Kansas Range: Central.