California Cord Grass

Spartina foliosa Trin. M6m. Acad. St.-P^tersb. VI 6^ 114. 1840.
Spartina leiantha Benth. Bot. Voy. Sulph. 56. 1844. (Type from Baja California.) Spartina densiflora subvar. Brongniarti f. acuta St. Yves, CandoUea 5; 76, 81. 1932. (Tvpe from Eureka, California, Heller 13871.)
Culms 70-100 cm. tall, erect from comparatively slender spreading rhizomes, rooting at the lower nodes, leafy to the summit; sheaths crowded, much longer than the internodes, rounded, usually succulent; ligule ciliate, 1-2 mm. long; blades 15-40 cm. long, 5-10 mm. wide at the base, usually stiffly ascending, glabrous on both surfaces, the margins scaberulous; panicle spikelike, cylindric, 15-20 cm. long, usually partly enclosed in the upper sheath; spikes several to numerous, sessile, crowded, at least at the summit of the panicle, the lower ones 5-7 cm. long, the rachis glabrous; spikelets distant, at least in the lower spikes, closely appressed; first glume half to three fourths as long as the floret, the keel hirsute in the lower half; second glume acute, as long as or distinctly exceeding the lemma, the keel hirsute, the margins ciliate in the lower half; lemma 8-10 mm. long, rather thin, subobtuse, obscurely lobed, glabrous except for the sparsely ciliate margins; palea narrowed at the summit, exceeding the lemma.
Type locality: California.
Distribution: Salt marshes near the Pacific coast, San Francisco to Baja California.