Participant Info

Species

Spartina gracilis

Family

Poaceae

CommonName

alkali cordgrass

Presence

yes

Status

native

EarliestDate

1873

LatestDate

2013

Ecosystem

basin

Geobotanical

Counties

Alamosa, Costilla, Rio Grande, Saguache

Passes

WildlifePreserves

Baca, Russell Lakes, San Luis Lakes

Other Localities

PhotoRecords

Comments

NEED IN SITU PHOTOS. Alkali cordgrass has been vouchered fairly often from basin salt and alkali flats, mainly west of the Great Sand Dunes NPP in a line running from the San Luis Lakes to Crestone. Another cluster of locations runs from Russell Lakes WPA up to and around the town of Saguache. Spartina gracilis grows in wet habitats such as ditches, stream and pond sides, salt and alkali flats, etc. The USA distribution is all Western states and the Great Plains, with the central concentration in Wyoming. The Watershed occurrences are the only locations in the entire Rio Grande drainage. Note that the ability of Spartina gracilis to survive temperatures down to -20 F has been studied. The parts of the plant that allow that (perennating structures) are the crown and, more importantly, the rhizomes (Schwarz and Reaney 1989).

Annotation