G109 



ALKALI SACATON 



Sporo'bolus airoi'des 



Flower head (panicle) spreading, 

 pyramidal, 4 to 16 in. long 



Individual flower group (spikelet) 

 1-flowered 



"Seed", or fruit free from the flower 

 bracts (lemma and palea) and loosely 

 enclosed by the outer "seed" coat 

 (pericarp) 



Flower bracts (l emrna an 



firm, without beards (awnless), smooth, 



about equal, lacking basal hairs 



Lowest (2) spikelet bracts (glumes) 

 awnless, persistent; 1st glume % as long 

 as lemma; 2d glume equal to the lemma 



Stalks (culms) ^stout, erect, 1 to 3 ft. 

 tall, smooth, solid 



Leaves wide at the base, tapering to a 

 long, slender point; sheaths smooth, 

 sometimes sparsely but not densely 

 hairy at the throat 



Roots coarse, fibrous 



Alkali sacaton, also known as bigplume bunchgrass, finetop saltgrass, and 

 hairgrass dropseed, is a robust, perennial grass, widely distributed from Wash- 

 ington to South Dakota, western Texas, and California, and south into Mexico. 

 Throughout its northern range this grass grows very scatteringly and is of 



