SACATON (Sporobolus airoides and wrightii)
Main Sources: Gould, Frank, 1951, Grasses of the Southwestern United States, Tucson: University of Arizona Press; Shreve, Forrest & Ira Wiggins, 1964, Vegetation and Flora of the Sonoran Desert, Vol. 1, Palo Alto: Stanford University Press; Kearney, Thomas & Robert Peebles, et al, 1960, Arizona Flora, Berkeley: University of California Press; McClaran, Mitchel & Thomas Van Devender, 1995, The Desert Grassland, Tucson: University of Arizona Press; van Devender, Thomas & Mark Dimmitt, "Desert Grasses", in Phillips, Steven& Patricia Comus, eds., 2000, A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert, pp. 265-80, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Press, Tucson; Ruyle, George & Deborah Young, eds., 1997, Arizona Range Grasses, Tucson, University of Arizona College of Agriculture; U.S.D.A. Conservation Districts of Southeastern Arizona,, n.d., Grasses of Southeastern Arizona. Washington, D.C.;
Note: this page is under construction.
Sacatons are study warm season, perennial bunchgrasses that tend to form large clumps (as below). Stems are firm and tough, forming dense clumps from a hard, knotty base. Sheaths and blades of leaves are firm and fibrous. They grow well over 3 feet in height, and appear mainly in our floodplains. Formerly common in our area, they are now rare (but being reintroduced in some places). These are valuable soil stabilizers.
Inflorescences are 6 to 18" long, with open panicles displaying wide-spreading branches, branchlets and spikelets (shown below):
