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 Seedhead Max Licher @http://swbiodiversity.org, Usage Rights: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) |  Seedhead Max Licher @http://swbiodiversity.org, Usage Rights: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) | | | | |
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Origin: Native Season: Cool and Warm
Habitat Description: Found in moist saline soils below 6,000 ft.
Plant Communities:Riparian
Elevation: 1000 - 6000 feet
Desc:
Often forms dense mats and groundcover where it occurs due to high branching, stolons and rhizomes; distinguished by the flattened spikelets with many florets and leaves arranged alternately in two opposite vertical rows.
Identification Notes: Unisexual flowers, male and female flowers on separate plants; extensive, tough, thick rhizomes; seedhead stem usually under 12 inches; seedhead of contracted branches; spikelets 5 to 18 or more, flattened, closely overlapping and awnless.
Grass Type: Perennial mat or sod-forming Rhizomes: Y Stolons: Y
Large Dense Clump (> 2 feet): N Bushy (highly branched): N
Height with Seedheads: Less than 12 inches
Seedhead Structure: Branched - contracted Seedhead Droops: N
Flowering Period: Apr - Sep
Number of Flowers per Spikelet: Multi-flowered Spikelets One-sided: N
Awns: Absent Three Awns: N Awns Bent: N
Flower and Seedhead Notes: Seedhead terminal, branched, 3/4 to 2-3/4 inches long, often crowded with 2 to 20 spikelets. Female floret lacks an awn, male floret is similar to the female floret but with a thinner lemma, a narrower palea and 3 anthers.
Blade Hairy:
N
Blade with White Margins:
N
Blade Cross section:
Flat
Blade Notes:
Leaf blade width to 1/4 inch; scattered, hairy; blades stiff, flattened at base, sharp pointed, coarse, spaced along the entire length of the stem; leaves folded in the bud.
Sheath Hairy:
N
Tuft of Hairs at top of Sheath or Collar:
Y
Ligules:
Membranous and hairy
Auricles (Ear-like lobes at collar area:
N
Forage Value:
Saltgrass is of low palatability for livestock and big game. If grazed alone in the fall or winter, saltgrass can cause compaction in cattle.
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