Prairie cordgrass

Sporobolus michauxianus, the prairie cordgrass (formerly placed in Spartina), is a robust rhizomatous perennial grass of the Poaceae family, native to North America. It forms extensive colonies via thick, scaly, far-creeping rhizomes that allow it to dominate wet meadows, marsh margins, ditches, and the upper reaches of tidal flats. Culms are stout, erect, and unbranched, reaching 1 to 2.5 metres tall. Leaves are long, flat to involute, 5 to 15 millimetres wide, sharply scabrous on the margins, and taper to a fine drawn-out point; ligules consist of a short ciliate membrane. The inflorescence is a stiffly erect panicle 15 to 40 centimetres long composed of 5 to 30 ascending one-sided racemose branches; spikelets are crowded in two rows along each branch, each containing a single floret with awnless glumes of unequal length. The species is valued for soil binding and forage.