Bunch Cord Grass

Spartina bakeri Merrill, Bull. U. S. Dep. Agr. PI. Ind 9: 14. 1902.
spartina juncea var. Bakeri St. Yves, Candollea S: 27, 91. 1932. (Based on S. Bakeri Merrill.)
Culms 1-2 meters tall, in large dense very tough clumps, erect from very short knotty rhizomes, sometimes with fascicles of branches at the nodes; sheaths usually much longer than the internodes, rounded on the back; ligule ciliate, 0.5-2 mm. long; blades elongate, 4-8 mm. wide at the base, firm, involute or rarely flat, glabrous on the lower surface, very scabrous on the upper surface and on the margins; panicle 10-20 cm. long; spikes 5-12, 3-6 cm. long, approximate but not crowded, appressed or narrowly ascending, sessile, or the lower with a peduncle as much as 1 cm. long, the rachis glabrous or very sparsely scabrous on the margins; spikelets closely appressed, 6-8 mm. long; glumes acute or acuminate, scabrous, especially on the keels, the first about half as long as the lemma, the second exceeding it; lemma 5-6 mm. long, subacute or obtuse, shallowly lobed, more or less scabrous on the keel and on the margins; palea slightly exceeding the lemma.
Type locality: Lake Ola, Florida (C. H. Baker 14).
Distribution: Sandy or marshy ground, usually near the coast. South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.