''Sporobolus heterolepis'', commonly known as prairie dropseed, is a species of prairie grass native to the tallgrass and mixed grass prairies of central

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

from Texas to southern Canada. It is also found further east, to the Atlantic coast of the United States and Canada, but is much less common beyond the

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...

and is restricted to specialized habitats. It is found in 27 states and four Canadian provinces.

Description

Prairie dropseed is a perennial

bunchgrass Tussock grasses or bunch grasses are a group of grass species in the family Poaceae. They usually grow as singular plants in clumps, tufts, hummocks, or bunches, rather than forming a sod or lawn, in meadows, grasslands, and prairies. As perennial ...

whose mound of leaves is typically from high and across. Its flowering stems ( culms) grow from tall, extending above the leaves. The flower cluster is an airy

panicle A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a panicle are of ...

long with many branches. They terminate in small spikelets, which each contain a single fertile floret. When it blooms, the floret has three reddish

anther The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filam ...

s and a short feathery stigma. If it is pollinated, the floret produces a nearly round seed long. At the base of the spikelet are two

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s (

glume In botany, a glume is a bract (leaf-like structure) below a spikelet in the inflorescence (flower cluster) of grasses (Poaceae) or the flowers of sedges (Cyperaceae). There are two other types of bracts in the spikelets of grasses: the lemma and ...

s), one of them long and the other long. The bracts each are long and tapered, with sharply pointed tips. Around the floret are a

lemma Lemma may refer to: Language and linguistics * Lemma (morphology), the canonical, dictionary or citation form of a word * Lemma (psycholinguistics), a mental abstraction of a word about to be uttered Science and mathematics * Lemma (botany), a ...

and palea, each about long, though the palea is sometimes longer than the lemma. Prairie dropseed is a fine-textured grass with long, narrow leaves that arch outward, forming attractive, round tufts. The leaves range in color from a rich green hue in summer to a golden rust color in the fall. Foliage is resilient enough to resist flattening by snow, so it provides year-round interest. From late July to mid-September, the grass blooms with rusty-tan flowers that rise in height. It occurs in a wide range of soils, doing well in moist to dry conditions. It is much less common in wetlands.

Ecology

It is a larval host to the Poweshiek skipper.The Xerces Society (2016), ''Gardening for Butterflies: How You Can Attract and Protect Beautiful, Beneficial Insects'', Timber Press.

Uses

The grass is cultivated as an ornamental plant in gardens because of its attractive

form. Because of its drought tolerance, it has been used on

green roofs A green roof or living roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage ...

. The seedhead is sometimes described as having the vague scent of fresh popcorn, cilantro, or

sunflower seed The sunflower seed is the seed of the sunflower ('' Helianthus annuus''). There are three types of commonly used sunflower seeds: linoleic (most common), high oleic, and sunflower oil seeds. Each variety has its own unique levels of monounsat ...

s. Prairie dropseed is also used for roadside revegetation and prairie restoration projects. It is difficult to establish by direct seeding. Transplanting greenhouse-grown seedlings is a more effective method of establishing it. Native Americans ground the seeds of the grass to make flour, and many species of

birds Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

eat the seeds.

References

External links

''Prairie Dropseed, plants & seeds''
from ''Prairie Nursery''

from ''Chicago Wilderness Magazine'' {{Taxonbar, from=Q7579245

heterolepis ''Heterolepis'' is a genus of flowering plants in the sunflower family.Per Ola Karis. 2007. "Arctotideae" pages 200-207. In: Klaus Kubitzki (series editor); Joachim W. Kadereit and Charles Jeffrey (volume editors). ''The Families and Genera o ...

Grasses of North America Bunchgrasses of North America Warm-season grasses of North America Grasses of Canada Grasses of the United States Native grasses of the Great Plains region Flora of the United States Flora of Eastern Canada Flora of the Northeastern United States Flora of the North-Central United States Flora of the Southeastern United States Plants used in Native American cuisine Garden plants of North America Bird food plants Drought-tolerant plants Flora without expected TNC conservation status