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.