Puffsheath Dropseed

Sporobolus neglectus Nash, Bull. Torrey Club 22: 464. 1895
Sporobolus vaginiflorus neglectus Scribn. Bull. U. S. Dep. Agr. Agrost. 17 (ed. 2): 170./. 466. 1901.
(Based on 5. neglectus Nash.) Sporobolus ozarkanus Fernald, Rhodora 35: 109. 1933. (Type from Webb City, Missouri, Palmer
3133.)
Annual; differing from S. vaginiflorus chiefly in the smaller, paler, plumper spikelets 2-3 mm. long, and in the glabrous lemma; blades often sparsely pilose; panicles usually entirely hidden in the more swollen sheaths; palea usually about as long as the lemma.
Type locality: Woodruff Gap, New Jersey (Brilton in 1887).
Distribution: Dry open ground and sandy fields, Quebec and Maine to North Dakota, and southward to Maryland, Tennessee, and Texas; Washington, Arizona.

Annuals, 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 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 sheath enlarged, inflated or distended, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades very narrow or filiform, less than 2 mm wide, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blade margins folded, involute, or conduplica te, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, 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 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, Inflorescence or spikelets partially hidden in leaf sheaths, subtended by spatheole, 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 equal or subequal, Glumes shorter than adjacent lemma, Glumes 1 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma similar in tex ture 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.

Sporobolus neglectus, common names small dropseed, small rushgrass, and puffsheath dropseed, is a plant found in North America. It is listed as endangered in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New Jersey. It is listed is as endangered and extirpated in Maryland and as possibly extirpated in Maine.