Saltmeadow Cordgrass

Spartina patens (Ait.) Muhl. Descr. Gram. 55. 1817
Dactylis patens Ait. Hort. Kew. 1 ; 104. 1789. (Type grown in England, seed from North America.) Trachynotia juncea Mictx. Fl. Bor. Am. 1 : 64. 1803. (Localities cited, South Carolina and Georgia,
Michaux.) Limnelis juncea Rich.; Pers. Syn. PI. 1; 72. 1805. (Based on Trachynotia juncea Michx.) Spartina pumila Roth, Catalecta Bot. 3: 10. 1806. (Type from New York.) Spartina juncea Willd. Enum. 81. 1809. (Based on Trachynotia juncea Michx.) Spartina patens var. juncea Hitchc. Rhodora 8: 210. 1906. (Based on Trachynotia juncea Michx.) Spartina juncea var. juncea subvar. americana St. Yves, CandoUea S: 27, 84. 1932. (Based on
5. juncea Willd.) Spartina juncea var. patens St. Yves, Candollea 5: 27, 86. 1932. Based on Dactylis patens Ait.
Culms 30-100 cm. tall, slender, erect from widely spreading rhizomes, the rhizomes with relatively long internodes, the scales not inflated; sheaths rounded, longer than the internodes, glabrous; ligule ciliate, 0.5 mm. long; blades 10-25 cm. long, 1-4 mm. wide, involute or rarely flat, glabrous on the lower surface, scabrous on the upper surface and on the margins; spikes 2-6, 2-6 cm. long, appressed or spreading, sessile or with peduncles 3-5 mm. long, the rachis scabrous on the margins; spikelets 7-10 mm. long (rarely as much as 12 mm.), ascending; glumes acute or acuminate, scabrous on the keels, the first about half as long as the lemma, the second as long as or longer than the lemma; lemma 5-7 mm. long, obtuse, shallowly lobed, scabrous on the keel at least near the summit ; palea a little longer than the lemma.
Type locality: North America.
Distribution: Salt marshes and sandy ground, near the coast, Quebec to Florida and Texas; also inland in New York and Michigan; Yucatan and Honduras; West Indies.