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Sporobolus airoides
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Monocots
Clade:	Commelinids
Order:	Poales
Family:	Poaceae
Subfamily:	Chloridoideae
Genus:	Sporobolus
Species:	S. airoides
Binomial name
Sporobolus airoides (Torr.) Torr.

Sporobolus airoides is a species of grass known by the common name alkali sacaton. It is native to western North America, including the Western United States west of the Mississippi River, British Columbia and Alberta in Canada, and northern and central Mexico. It grows in many types of habitat, often in alkali soils, such as in California desert regions.

Description

Sporobolus airoides is a perennial bunchgrass forming a clump of stems reaching up to 2 m (6.6 ft) tall. The stem bases are thick and tough, almost woody in texture. The fibrous green or gray-green leaves are up to 60 cm (24 in) in length. The inflorescence is long and generally wide open and spreading, bearing yellow spikelets with purplish bases. The grass produces abundant seeds, which are often dispersed in flowing water and germinate when embedded in sediment.

Halophyte – salinity

Sporobolus airoides is a facultative halophyte, able to grow in soils with high salt concentrations. This grass germinates best in warm, sunny, wet conditions, and it can easily move into saline soils such as those in alkali flats when the substrate is wet.

Cultivation

It is a valuable grass for habitat restoration and revegetation projects in disturbed habitat in the Southwest United States, especially in riparian zones in California and the Intermountain West.

Mojave Desert

It is planted with Muhlenbergia asperifolia (scratchgrass) for Mojave River and other riparian zone restoration in the Mojave Desert. It produces dense groundcover once established.

References

1. NRCS. "Sporobolus airoides". PLANTS Database. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Retrieved 27 November 2015.
2. ^ US Forest Service Fire Ecology
3. Hershdorfer, M. and R. Garner. Sporobolus airoides and Muhlenbergia asperifolia: Population developments for southern Nevada. USDA. March 2006.

External links

• Jepson Manual Treatment – Sporobolus airoides
• USDA Plants Profile: Sporobolus airoides
• Grass Manual Treatment – Sporobolus airoides
• FAO Grassland Index
• Sporobolus airoides – Photo gallery

• Sporobolus
• Bunchgrasses of North America
• Native grasses of California
• Grasses of Canada
• Grasses of the United States
• Flora of the California desert regions
• Flora of the Great Basin
• Flora of the Sierra Nevada (United States)
• Flora of the Sonoran Deserts
• Flora of the Northwestern United States
• Flora of the Southwestern United States
• Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands
• Natural history of the Central Valley (California)
• Natural history of the Peninsular Ranges
• Natural history of the Santa Monica Mountains
• Natural history of the Transverse Ranges
• Natural history of the Mojave Desert
• North American desert flora
• Flora of the Western United States
• Garden plants of North America
• Drought-tolerant plants