Sporobolus cryptandrus A.Gray

Tufted perennial (sometimes blooming the first year) 3–10 dm; lvs flat or drying involute, 2–6 mm wide, tapering to a long point, the lower sheaths overlapping; sheaths with a conspicuous tuft of long white hairs on each side at the top; panicle ovoid or pyramidal, mostly 10–20 × 2.5–5 cm, its branches mostly alternate or irregularly disposed, spikelet-bearing to near the base; spikelets cleistogamous, pale or olivaceous; glumes acute, the first to about half as long as the broader second one, which about equals the lemma; lemma about equaling the palea; anthers ca 0.5 mm; 2n=18, 36, 72. Dry, especially sandy soil; widespread in w. and c. U.S. and nearby Can. and Mex., e. irregularly to Que., Me., N.J., and O. Doubtfully divisible into vars. Most of our plants have spikelets 2–3 mm in an exserted panicle with spreading branches; these have been called var. fuscicolor (Hook.) Pohl, a name based on plants from Wash. Toward the w. part of our range, and w. to the Pacific, the common (and nomenclaturally typical) phase has spikelets 1.4–2 mm in a panicle with the lower part included in the enlarged and inflated upper sheath, and the panicle-branches are more ascending.

It is a temperate and subtropical plant. It grows on sandy soils. In Argentina it grows from sea level to 1,200 m above sea level.

The seeds are parched, ground and mixed with water or milk to make porridge or biscuits. They can be added to breads, muffins and cereals.

Can be grown by divisions or seedlings.