MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



395 



Figure 815.— Distribution of 

 Sporobolus microspcrmus. 



ing culms, southeastern Virginia (Gron. Fl. Virg.) to Florida and 



Texas, south through the West Indies to Brazil (fig. 817). A robust 



form (S. littoralis Kunth), with culms as much as 



1 m tall and panicles as much as 15 cm long, 



is found in the West Indies and extends into 



Florida. 



4. Sporobolus poiretii (Roem. and Schult.) 

 Hitchc. Smutgrass. (Fig. 818, A.) Peren- 

 nial; culms erect, solitary or in small tufts, 30 

 to 100 cm tall; blades flat to subinvolute, rather 

 firm, 2 to 5 mm wide at base, elongate, tapering 

 to a fine point; panicle usually spikelike but more or less interrupted, 

 10 to 40 cm long, the branches appressed or ascending; spikelets about 



2 mm long; glumes obtuse, 

 somewhat unequal, about half 

 as long as the spikelet or less ; 

 lemma acutish. % (Sporo- 

 bolus berteroanus Hitchc. and 

 Chase.) — Open ground and 

 waste places, Virginia to 

 Tennessee and Arkansas, 

 south to Florida, Texas, and 

 the warmer parts of America 

 to Argentina; on ballast in 

 Oregon and New Jersey (fig. 

 819); tropical Asia, appar- 

 ently introduced in America. 

 At maturity the extruded 

 reddish caryopses remain for 

 some time sticking to the 

 panicle by the mucilaginous 



Figure 816.— Sporobolus virginicus. Plant, X 1; glumes 

 and floret, X 10. (Nash 2467, Fla.) 



Figure 817. — Distribution of 

 Sporobolus virginicus. 



pericarp . Often affected with 

 a black fungus. This species 

 has been referred to the Aus- 

 tralian S. elongatus R. Br., 

 which seems to be distinct, 

 differing in its looser panicle. 



5. Sporobolus indicus (L.) R. Br. (Fig. 818, B.) Resembling 

 <S. poiretii, but the blades more slender, especially at base, and the 

 panicle branches longer, more slender, less densely flowered, loosely 

 ascending to somewhat spreading, the panicle not spikelike. % 

 Punta Gorda, Fla.— Ballast, Mobile, Ala.; tropical America. 



6. Sporobolus vaginiflorus (Torr.) Wood. (Fig. 820.) Annual, 

 branching from base; culms erect to spreading, mostly 20 to 40 cm 

 tall, sometimes as much as 75 cm; blades slender, subinvolute, the 



