Sporobolus densiflorus

Dense-flowered cord grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Conservation status: Cal-IPC Yes

Dense-flowered cord grass is a naturalized perennial found in the northern and central California Coast bioregions in coastal salt marshes at elevations below 10 meters. Flowering from May to August, this plant produces small, dense inflorescences with overlapping branches 6 to 30 centimeters long. Growing in clumps with slender stems 27 to 150 centimeters tall, it forms tightly clustered tufts with firm internodes. Its leaves are narrow, 12 to 43 centimeters long, typically inrolled when fresh, with approximately two ridges per millimeter on the upper surface. The plant's spikelets are distinctive, measuring 8 to 14 millimeters long with short, sharp-bristly keels on both glumes and lemmas.

Habitat: Coastal salt marshes

Bloom period: May-Aug

Elevation: < 10 m

Bioregions: NCo, CCo

California counties: Humboldt, Contra Costa, Marin, Del Norte, Solano

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