Sporobolus contractus
Spike dropseed
Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native
Spike dropseed is a California native perennial found in the White and Inyo Mountains and desert regions in rocky to sandy washes, slopes, and woodland at elevations of 400 to 2,300 meters. Flowering from August to October, this plant produces green to lead-colored spikelets in dense, spike-like inflorescences. Growing with tufted, erect stems 40 to 120 centimeters tall, it forms distinctive clumps with conspicuous leaf bases. Its leaves are 5 to 35 centimeters long, 3 to 8 millimeters wide, with distinctive ciliate margins and a leaf collar bearing prominent hairs up to 4 millimeters long. The fruit is a small, light-brown ellipsoid seed approximately 0.8 to 1.2 millimeters long.
Habitat: Rocky to sandy washes, slopes, scrub, woodland
Bloom period: Aug-Oct
Elevation: 400-2300 m
Bioregions: W&I, D
California counties: San Bernardino, Riverside, San Diego, Inyo, Imperial, Los Angeles
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.