. Common plants of longleaf pine-bluestem range. Plant ecology; Grasses; Forage plants. PINEYWOODS DROPSEED Sporobolus junceus (Michx.) Kunth Pineywoods dropseed is a bunchgrass, with basal tufts arising from short, scaly rhizomes. In light, herbaceous cover it may form large, dense clumps. Where grass is dense, bunches are usually small, often consisting of only a few slender tufts. Foilage is mostly basal. Leaf blades are long, slender, blue green, and practically hairless. They often fold lengthwise, becoming almost tubelike in cross sec- tion. Thus, the leaves may superficially resemble lo
. Common plants of longleaf pine-bluestem range. Plant ecology; Grasses; Forage plants. PINEYWOODS DROPSEED Sporobolus junceus (Michx.) Kunth Pineywoods dropseed is a bunchgrass, with basal tufts arising from short, scaly rhizomes. In light, herbaceous cover it may form large, dense clumps. Where grass is dense, bunches are usually small, often consisting of only a few slender tufts. Foilage is mostly basal. Leaf blades are long, slender, blue green, and practically hairless. They often fold lengthwise, becoming almost tubelike in cross sec- tion. Thus, the leaves may superficially resemble longleaf pine needles. Flower stalks are 1 to 2 feet tall. They end in distinctive yellow- to brown- bronze, narrowly conical panicles that are usually 4 to 6 inches long and about 1/3 as wide. Until inflorescences appear, pineywoods dropseed resembles cutover muhly. The latter is distinguish- able by its prominent, white, pointed ligule, and by fragments of old basal foliage, which persist as a tangled mat of straw-colored fibers. The ligule in pineywoods dropseed is barely visible, and fibers of basal sheaths are nonpersistent. Pineywoods dropseed rates fair as a forage grass. Its leaves become tough by midseason; thus, palata- bility is low during summer and fall. Herbage often remains green well into the winter. Although nutritive content is low during winter, cattle are attracted by the green color, and they may eat large amounts. On a Louisiana range where this species was only 1 percent of the ground cover, it provided 3 to 5 percent of the yearly diet. In January and February, it supplied about 10 percent of the graz- ing. Range: Coastal Plain; Texas to Florida and Vir- ginia. Perennial. Culms 30-60 cm. tall, erect, rigid, slender, in small clumps, leafy at the base, naked above, from short, scaly rhizomes; sheaths glabrous, strongly overlapping; ligule a smooth or ciliated short membrane; blades 2-4 mm. wide, 2-25 cm. long, folded or involute with a thickened, pointed ap
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, booksubjectforageplants, booksubjectgrasses
