HOW TO KNOW THE GRASSES 

 5a. Staminate and pistillate spikelets similar but on separate plants . . 6 



5b. Spikelets all perfect 9 



6a. Plants annual, spreading extensively by delicate 

 stolons, forming flat mats on muddy ground .... 23a 



6b. Plants perennial, spreading by rhizomes; cxilms erect, 

 the plants not forming flat mats 7 



7a. Lemmas pubescent or with a cottony web of hairs 

 at the base. Fig. 44 110b 



Figure 44 



7b. Lemmas glabrous; plants of salty or alkali soils. Fig. 45. 



SALT GRASS Distichlis stricia (Torr.) Rydb. 



Perennial; spreading by stiff, scaly rhi- 

 zomes; plants 10 — 40 cm. tall. The salt 

 grasses are coarse, stiff plants of saline 

 or alkali flats in the drier parts of the 

 western states and in the coastal salt 

 marshes. D. sfricta is confined to the in- 

 terior of the western United States. In 

 desert areas, it is eaten readily by cattle, 

 but it is seldom taken where more suc- 

 culent forage is available. April — Sep- 

 tember. 



Distichlis spicata (L.) Greene, a very sim- 

 ilar species, grows in brackish marshes 

 along our entire Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific 



Coasts. 

 Figure 45 



25 



