| Author | (Poiret) Yates | |
| Distribution | Scattered across most of the southern and eastern parts of the state, including the northern Outer Banks. Absent from most of the northwestern half of the state and from the Sandhills proper.
Southeastern VA to AR and OK, south to central FL and southeastern TX. | |
| Abundance | Uncommon in the southern half of the Piedmont and much of the Coastal Plain; rare in the southern Mountains, and absent in the Sandhills. | |
| Habitat | Mesic to moist (to dry) hardwood or hardwood-pine slopes and flats; often in rather rich soil in diverse forests, especially over calcareous or mafic rock. Generally above the normal flood zones of nearby creeks and rivers, although a huge population occurs on banks and narrow floodplain of Avent's Creek in Harnett County. | |
| Phenology | Flowering and fruiting July-October. | |
| Identification | This species is very much like Slender Spikegrass (C. laxum), which see. The leaves, flowering stems, and inflorescences average longer, and spikelets average more florets (4-7 vs. 3-5 in C. laxum) -- thus giving Longleaf Spikegrass a different gestalt in the field. Always note the pubescent leaf sheaths! | |
| Taxonomic Comments | A purportedly different taxon occurs on the Outer Banks. However, plants there show continuous variation in spikelet characters -- short and appressed to elongate and divergent. Until the website editors see published evidence of the new taxon, this website will maintain a single entity. Older references named this species as Uniola sessiflora.
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| Other Common Name(s) | Longleaf Woodoats. As with several other members of the genus, most websites and references name it as "woodoats". However, in the Carolinas these species with spike-like inflorescences with small spikelets are usually named as "spikegrass" -- including by Weakley (2018) and also by NatureServe. This website follow these last two references. | |
| State Rank | S3 | |
| Global Rank | G5 | |
| State Status | | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | FAC link |
| USACE-emp | FAC link |
