Sporobolus wrightii

Big sacaton, Big Sacaton

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Big sacaton is a California native perennial found in southwestern and desert southern California regions in seasonally moist, alkaline areas at elevations below 1,000 meters. Flowering from April to November, this grass produces green to purple spikelets 1.5 to 3 millimeters long in open, lanceolate terminal inflorescences. Growing with tufted, erect stems 90 to 250 centimeters tall, it forms dense clumps with shiny, straw-colored leaf bases. Its leaves are 20 to 70 centimeters long and 3 to 10 millimeters wide, with glabrous to short-hairy sheaths and a tiny ligule less than 0.5 millimeters long. The fruit is a small ellipsoid seed 1 to 1.4 millimeters long, red-brown and striate.

Habitat: Seasonally moist, alkaline areas

Bloom period: Apr-Nov

Elevation: < 1000 m

Bioregions: SW, DSon

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