Sporobolus schoenoides
Swamp prickle grass
(c) Dmitriy Bochkov, some rights reserved (CC BY) · licence
Family: Poaceae · Type: Grass · Not Native
Sporobolus schoenoides (Swamp prickle grass) is a non-native California grass in the Poaceae family, recognized by mat-like habit, wide partly-enclosed inflorescence.
Swamp prickle grass is a naturalized annual found in northern California bioregions including the Klamath Ranges, northern Sierra Nevada foothills, Central Valley, Central Western California, Southern California coast, Transverse Ranges, and desert mountains at elevations below 1,970 meters in wet places. Flowering from June to October, this plant produces pink to purple flowers in compact ovoid to cylindric inflorescences 3 to 75 millimeters long. Growing with decumbent stems 5 to 75 centimeters tall that form mat-like clusters, it spreads with few branches. Its leaf blades range 2 to 10 centimeters long with glabrous sheath margins, creating a delicate ground-hugging appearance. The small spikelets measure approximately 3 millimeters long, with lemmas slightly longer than the glumes.
Identification and appearance
Key characters: 14 sympatric species; key features are mat-like habit, wide partly-enclosed inflorescence
Habitat and range
Habitat: Wet places
Elevation: < 1970 m
California counties: Contra Costa, Alameda, Amador, Butte, Colusa, Fresno, Los Angeles, Madera, Marin, Monterey, Napa, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Solano, Tehama, Tulare, Ventura, Lake, Mendocino, Sonoma, Yolo, Merced, Sutter, Kern, San Mateo, Plumas, Nevada, El Dorado, Kings, Lassen, Sacramento, Glenn, Yuba, Modoc, Stanislaus, Siskiyou, Shasta, Mariposa, Trinity, Imperial, San Joaquin, Santa Clara, Placer, Santa Cruz, San Benito
Outside California: Oregon, southwestern United States, scattered central and eastern United States, native to Europe
Bloom period
Sporobolus schoenoides blooms Jun-Oct.
How to tell it apart
vs Typha: Typha (cattails) has thick, sausage-like brown flower spikes and wide strap-like leaves, not grass flowers.; vs Distichlis: Distichlis forms stiff colonies in salt marshes with distinctly two-ranked leaves, lacking ciliate sheaths.; vs Muhlenbergia: Sporobolus has fringed hairs on leaf sheath margins; Muhlenbergia sheaths are smooth.; vs Leymus: Leymus has spike-like inflorescences with spikelets in pairs, not the open panicles of Sporobolus.; vs Oloptum: Oloptum has prominent bent awns and plumose hairs; Sporobolus is awnless with ciliate sheaths.
Frequently asked questions
Is Sporobolus schoenoides native to California?
No. Sporobolus schoenoides is not native to California (recorded as not native).
When does Sporobolus schoenoides bloom?
Sporobolus schoenoides blooms Jun-Oct.
Where in California does Sporobolus schoenoides grow?
Sporobolus schoenoides occurs in Contra Costa, Alameda, Amador, Butte, Colusa, Fresno, Los Angeles, Madera and other counties, at elevations of < 1970 m.
What plant family does Sporobolus schoenoides belong to?
Sporobolus schoenoides is in the Poaceae family, genus Sporobolus.
What habitat does Sporobolus schoenoides grow in?
Sporobolus schoenoides grows in Wet places.
Related species
Other California species in the same genus, family, or bioregion.
Sources: Jepson eFlora · Index of California Plant Names · CalPhotos
Last updated 2026-10-07
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Cal-IPC, and more.