Sporobolus indicus

Smut grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Smut grass is a naturalized perennial grass found in the northern San Joaquin Valley, central western California, southern California coastal regions, and Peninsular Ranges in open, disturbed areas and roadsides at elevations below 1,200 meters. Flowering from April to November, this grass produces green to lead-colored spikelets in dense, contracted terminal clusters. Growing in tufted clumps with erect stems 30 to 60 centimeters tall, the plant forms distinctive green to brown dense clusters. Its leaves are narrow, 6 to 30 centimeters long and only 1 to 5 millimeters wide, with glabrous or slightly ciliate margins. The fruit is a small, red-brown, four-angled structure approximately 1 to 1.2 millimeters long.

Habitat: Open, disturbed areas, roadsides

Bloom period: Apr-Nov

Elevation: < 1200 m

Bioregions: ScV, n SnJV, CW (exc SCoRI), SCo, PR

California counties: San Diego, Riverside, El Dorado, Orange, San Bernardino, Tulare, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Tehama, Marin, Santa Barbara, San Joaquin, Tuolumne, Sacramento, Calaveras, Stanislaus, Glenn, Sonoma, Yuba, Solano, Butte, Sutter, Mendocino, Santa Clara, Contra Costa, Alameda, San Luis Obispo, Yolo, Merced, Shasta, Monterey

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