Sporobolus spicatus Seeds | Spiked Dropseed
LATIN NAME: Sporobolus spicatus
COMMON NAME: Spiked Dropseed
Plant Profile
Sporobolus spicatus, better known as Spiked Dropseed, is a grass in the grass family. Spiked dropseed bends fine, slender stems under narrow, airy panicles, and the whole grass carries the light, pale look of the salt flat. It is a grass of open, sunny, light, sandy, free-draining ground. Not many plants ask so little and repay so much.
Science & Biotechnology
Within the grass family, Sporobolus spicatus is of continuing interest to researchers working on plant diversity, seed biology and the selection of improved garden forms. The practical point for growers is that this plant has been observed in gardens for so long that its behaviour holds few surprises.
Uses & Benefits
Spiked Dropseed brings genuine presence to the garden and earns its keep across the growing season. Spiked dropseed is a quiet, useful grass of salt flat and study collection. It is a quiet, useful grass of open, sunny, light, sandy, free-draining ground. Dropseed seeds grow well in a light, sandy mix in full sun, watered sparingly. Getting it going is easy; keeping it going is easier still.
Dropseeds are graceful native grasses for meadow and prairie restoration, feeding birds with their small abundant seed.
Growing from Seed
Spiked Dropseed grows readily from seed. Fill a pot with a light seed compost, sow evenly on the surface, cover thinly and stand it somewhere warm, bright and evenly moist. Move strong seedlings into individual pots, keep them in good light, and set them out when the weather and their size agree.
Our Take
Among the Sporobolus group, it is one of the more distinctive species in cultivation. Moisture matters most while plants are young; established plants cope with far more.
Related Reading
Gardeners who grow Spiked Dropseed often pair it with these related subjects: