Seashore Dropseed

This is a common coastal grass growing along seashores in delta regions.

This species is a good sand binder. It is widespread on seashores and in inland, saline places in warm parts of both the Old and New Worlds.

A plant of sandy sea-shores; rarely on saline soils inland.

Culm genticulate at the basal nodes. Blades coriaceous, needle-like at the end, about 6 cm long by 1-1.5 mm wide; ligule about 0.2 mm long, upper margin and backside ciliate. Inflorescence a contracted panicle, about 8 cm long. Spikelets 1-flowered, about 2.5 mm long; glumes chartaceous; the lower about 1.2 mm long, lanceolate, irregularly toothed at the apex, nerveless; the upper lanceolate, 1-nerved, acute; lemma and palea the same texture with the glume; lemma ovate lanceolate, 1-nerved, boat-shaped, about 2 mm long; palea ovate 2-keeled, truncate at the apex. Fruit an utricle, about 1 mm long; embryo more than 1/2 the length of the utricle.

Perennial with long, tough, yellowish rhizomes. Culms erect or decumbent, often fastigiately branched in upper part, 15–30 cm tall, 1–2 mm thick. Leaf sheaths tightly overlapping, loosely pubescent at mouth; leaf blades glaucous, stiff, distichous, flat at first, soon involute, 3–10 × 0.1–0.3 cm, adaxial surface scabrid, abaxial surface smooth, apex pungent; ligule ca. 0.2 mm. Panicle linear, spikelike, 3–10 × 0.4–1 cm; branches 0.5–1.5 cm, erect, appressed to rachis. Spikelets gray-green or greenish yellow, fusiform, 2.3–2.7 mm; glumes acute; lower glume lanceolate, 2/3–4/5 spikelet length, 1-veined; upper glume narrowly ovate, as long as spikelet, 1-veined; lemma broadly lanceolate, subequal to upper glume, midvein distinct, lateral veins obscure, obtuse; palea equaling lemma. Anthers 3, 1–1.5 mm. Grain subglobose, ca. 0.7 mm. Fl. and fr. Jun–Sep. 2n = 18.

Perennial, spreading by long slender rhizomes; culms 10-30 cm high, 1-2 mm in diameter at the base. Leaf-blades nearly always convolute, 2-10 cm long, 1-4 mm wide, distichous, stiff, pungent. Panicle spike-like, linear, 2-10 cm long, (3-) 6-8(-l0) mm wide, untidily cylindrical, the branches closely appressed to the rhachis and 5-15 mm long. Spikelets 1.7-2.5 mm long; lower glume lanceolate, 1.2-2 mm long, two-thirds to four-fifths as long as the spikelet (variable even in the same panicle), acute; upper glume narrowly ovate-elliptic, as long as the spikelet, acute; lemma as long as the upper glume; anthers 3, 1-1.3 mm long. Grain subglobose, 0.7 mm long.

Distributed in tropical Asia, Africa and America.

Distribution: Pakistan (Sind); tropics and subtropics throughout the world.

Sandy seashores, often below high tide mark. Fujian, Guangdong, Hainan, Taiwan, Zhejiang [India, Indonesia, Japan (Ryukyu Islands), Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; tropics and subtropics].

Agrostis virginica Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 63. 1753; Vilfa virginica (Linnaeus) P. Beauvois.

Sporobolus virginicus (L.) Kunth, Rev. Gram. 1: 67. 1829
Agroslis virginica L. Sp. PI. 63. 1753.
Vilfa virginica Beauv. Agrost. 16, 182. 1812. (Based on Agroslis virginica L.)
Agroslis pungens Muhl. Descr. Gram. 72. 1817. (Type from eastern United States.) Not A.
pungens Schreb. 1769. Crypsis virginu a Nutt. Gen. 1: 49. 1818. (Based on Agroslis virginica " Willd.") Podosaemum virginicum Link, Hort. Berol. 1: 85. 1827. (Based on Agroslis virginica L.)
Perennial, with numerous, branching, widely creeping, slender rhizomes (yellowish in
drying;; culms erect, 10-40 cm. tall; sheaths overlapping, more or less pilose at the throat;
Hat or becoming involute especially toward the fine point, conspicuously distichous,
mostly less than 5 cm. long or on the innovations longer; panicle pale, contracted or spikelike,
2-8 cm. long, 5-10 mm. thick; spikelets 2-2.5 mm. long; glumes and lemma about equal.
Type locality: Virginia.
DISTRIBUTION: Sandy or muddy seashores and saline marshes, forming extensive colonies, with relatively few flowering culms, southeastern Virginia (Gron. Fl. Virg.) to Florida and Texas, and southward through the West Indies to Brazil: also Ecuador to Chile; warmer parts of the Old World.

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Rhizomes present, Rhizome short and compact, stems close, Rhizome elongate, creeping, stems distant, Stolons or runners present, Stems trailing, spreading or prostrate, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems mat or turf forming, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath hairy, hispid or prickly, Leaf sheath hairy at summit, throat, or collar, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blade margins folded, involute, or conduplicate, Leaf blades mostly glab rous, Leaf blades more or less hairy, Ligule present, Ligule a fringe of hairs, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence a contracted panicle, narrowly paniculate, branches appressed or ascending, Inflorescence a dense slender spike-like panicle or raceme, branches contracted, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence branches more than 10 to numerous, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets laterally compressed, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 1 fertile floret, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating above the glumes, glumes persistent, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes distinctly unequal, Glumes shorter than adjacent lemma, Glumes 1 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma similar in texture to glumes, Lemma 1 nerve d, Lemma glabrous, Lemma apex acute or acuminate, Lemma awnless, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea about equal to lemma, Palea 2 nerved or 2 keeled, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Plants sterile, few or no mature seeds produced, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sporobolus virginicus.

Sporobolus virginicus, known by numerous common names including seashore dropseed, marine couch, sand couch, salt couch grass, saltwater couch, coastal rat-tail grass, and nioaka, is a species of grass with a wide distribution.