Sporobolus cryptandrus

Sand dropseed

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Sand dropseed is a native perennial grass found in the Sierra Nevada, San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains, Peninsular Ranges, eastern Sierra Nevada, Desert, and naturalized in other California regions in rocky to sandy washes, scrub, and woodland at elevations of 350 to 2,800 meters. Flowering from April to October, this grass produces green to purple spikelets 1.5 to 3 millimeters long with delicate, narrow clusters. Growing in dense tufts with erect stems 30 to 100 centimeters tall, it forms distinctive clumps with green to brown leaf bases. Its leaves are narrow, 5 to 25 centimeters long and 1 to 6 millimeters wide, with a distinctive collar featuring conspicuous hairs up to 4 millimeters long. The fruit is a small ellipsoid seed 0.7 to 1 millimeter long, light to red-brown in color.

Habitat: Rocky to sandy washes, slopes, scrub, woodland

Bloom period: Apr-Oct

Elevation: 350-2800 m

Bioregions: SNH, SnGb, SnBr, PR, SNE, D, naturalized CaRF, ScV, waif in SnJV, SCoRO, SCo

California counties: San Bernardino, Inyo, Riverside, San Luis Obispo, Ventura, San Diego, Imperial, Kern, Los Angeles, Mono, Sacramento, Nevada, Alameda, Butte, Santa Barbara, Solano, Tehama, Colusa, Siskiyou, San Joaquin, Yolo, El Dorado, Placer, Monterey

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.