Spartina alterniflora Loisel.

• Authority

  Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

• Family

  Poaceae

• Scientific Name

  Spartina alterniflora Loisel.

• Description

  Species Description - Culms coarse, soft and fleshy, to 3 m, or in the north as low as 3 dm, sulfurously malodorous when bruised, rhizomes elongate, thick and soft, the closely imbricate scales inflated; lvs elongate, 5–15 mm wide, glabrous or nearly so; panicle narrow, 1–3 dm; spikes slender, appressed to the axis, 5–10 cm; spikelets scarcely imbricate, erect or nearly so, those on one side of the spike usually 3–8 mm apart; rachis prolonged beyond the uppermost spikelet and usually conspicuously exceeding it; spikelets glabrous or somewhat hairy; first glume linear, half to nearly as long as the lemma; second glume 10–14 mm, exceeding the lemma, its midvein scarcely or not at all prolonged beyond the thin margins; 2n=42, 56, 70. Coastal salt-marshes, mainly intertidal, smaller at the upper tidal margins; Que. and Nf. to Fla. and Tex.; also on the Atlantic coast of S. Amer. and in n. Europe.

• Common Names

  smooth cord-grass