Cuban Dropseed

Sporobolus cubensis Hitchc. Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 237
1909.
Perennial; culms densely cespitose, erect, glabrous, about 3-noded, 30-50 cm. tall; sheaths glabrous, pilose at the throat, the lower strongly felty-ciliate; ligule very short; blades rather firm or stiff, erect, flat or involute, 10-15 cm. long, the uppermost shorter, 1-3 mm. wide, the lower ones narrowed into a channeled ciliate base; panicle erect, usually brown or bronzeyellow, narrowly pyramidal, 10-15 cm. long, the axis glabrous, the branches in verticils 1-2 cm. apart, finallyhorizontally spreading or reflexed, as much as 2 or even 3 cm. long, flexuous, some of them naked at base for as much as 5 mm.; spikelets about 4 mm. long, acute, somewhat secund along the lower side of the branches, the lateral pedicels 0.5 mm. long; first glume gradually acute, a little more than half as long as the spikelet, the second as long as the lemma.
Type locality: Isle of Pines (Curliss 392).
Distribution: Sandy barrens, Cuba to Puerto Rico; Chiapas; Costa Rica to Para and Bolivia.

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, 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 basal, below middle of stem, 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 and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades very narrow or filiform, less than 2 mm wide, Leaf blade margins folded, involute, or conduplicate, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Leaf blades more or less hairy, Ligule present, Ligule a fringe of hairs, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence an open panicle, openly paniculate, branches spreading, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence lax, widely spreading, branches drooping, pendulous, Inflorescence branches more than 10 to numerous, Lower panicle branches whorled, 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 equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glume equal to or longer than spikelet, Glumes 1 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma similar in texture to glumes, Lemma 1 nerved, 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, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear.