Alkali Cord Grass

Spartina gracilis Trin. M^m. Acad. St.-P^tersb. VI
6^:110. 1840.
Culms 45-100 cm. tall, usually solitary, erect from widely spreading rhizomes, the scales of the rhizomes somewhat inflated; sheaths longer than the internodes, rounded, glabrous, rather soft; ligule ciliate, 1 mm. long; blades 15-20 cm. long, 2-5 mm. wide, flat or becoming involute, glabrous on the lower surface, very scabrous on the upper surface and on the margins; panicle 10-25 cm. long; spikes 4-12, 2-8 cm. long, sessile, usually appressed, crowded or sometimes rather distant, the rachis hispid-ciliate; spikelets 6-10 mm. long, crowded, ascending; glumes acute or mucronate, conspicuously hispid-ciliate on the keels, the first narrow, hull as long as the lemma, the second a little longer than the lemma; lemma obtuse, shallowly Ijbed, hispid-ciliate on the keel, sparsely scabrous on the margins; palea about as long as the lemma.
Type locality: North America.
Distribution: Saskatchewan to British Columbia, and southward to Colorado, Esistern Washington and Arizona.

Perennials, Aquatic, leaves emergent, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Rhizomes present, Rhizome elongate, creeping, stems distant, Stolons or runners present, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems solitary, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem internodes solid or spongy, S tem 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 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 glabrous, Leaf blades scabrous, roughened, or wrinkled, Ligule present, Ligule a fringe of hairs, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence a panicle with narrowly racemose or spicate branches, Inflorescence with 2-10 branches, Inflorescence branches 1-sided, Rachis angular, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets sessile or subsessile, 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 below the glumes, Spikelets secund, in rows on one side of rachis, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes distinctly unequal, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glume equal to or longer than spikelet, Glumes keeled or winged, Glume surface hairy, villous or pilose, Glumes 1 nerved, Glumes 3 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma 3 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma body or surface hairy, Lemma apex truncate, rounded, or obtuse, Lemma awnless, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea longer than lemma, Palea 2 nerved or 2 keeled, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis.

Sporobolus hookerianus is a species of grass known by the common name alkali cordgrass.