sporobolus

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A genus of grasses, of the tribe Agrostideæ, type of subtribe Sporoboleæ. It is characterized by a diffuse or cylindrical and spike-like panicle, generally containing very numerous and small one-flowered spikelets, each with three awnless glumes, the flowering glume equal to the others or shorter, and the grain free and often readily deciduous from the glumes and palet. In typical species the pericarp, unlike that of most grasses, is a utricle; other species having the usual caryopsis are sometimes separated as a genus Vilfa (Beauvois, 1812). There are about 80 species, widely scattered through temperate and warmer regions, numerous in America, but with only one species, S. pungens, in Europe. They are commonly perennials, slender or Sometimes coarse, the leaves flat or rolled, the panicle various, sometimes inclosed in the leaf-sheaths, the spikelets sometimes minute, They are known in general as dropseed-grass, some as rush-grass (which see).

WordNet 3.0

1. n. cosmopolitan annual and perennial grasses (as dropseed or rush grass)