| Author | (A. Gray) A. Gray | |
| Distribution | Southwestern Mountains only. Known from 2 locations: Clay County (Buck Creek Serpentine Barrens) and Jackson County (Webster Serpentine Barrens), where extant at both sites. A specimen at WCUH was purportedly collected in Graham County, but in fact it was in Clay County.
Que to Sask., south to NC, GA, OK, and NM. | |
| Abundance | Very rare, with only 2 sites known. Thankfully, the Clay County population is large. This is a State Threatened species. | |
| Habitat | Dry ultramafic soil of Pitch Pine (Pinus rigida) or Virginia Pine (P. virginiana) barrens. These are essentially the only known ultramafic barrens in the state, and thus this is an extremely limited habitat. |
| Phenology | Flowering and fruiting August-September. | |
| Identification | Prairie Dropseed is a clump-forming perennial bunchgrass, with many arching leaves up to a foot long. Flowering stems stand rather erect, 1-2.5 feet tall, with an open, airy inflorescence. It may resemble Muhlenbergia capillaris, but that species has a distinctly pink or red-purplish inflorescence (vs. straw-color or light brownish in S. heterolepis). | |
| Taxonomic Comments | None
Recent molecular research suggests that Calamovilfa and Spartina are nested deeply within Sporobolus. Weakley (2020) proposes that they remain split until a long-term solution is found, as their members are monophyletic. | |
| Other Common Name(s) | None | |
| State Rank | S1 | |
| Global Rank | G5 | |
| State Status | T | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | UPL link |
| USACE-emp | UPL link |
