Index / Search / Sporobolus wrightii

§1 Plant

Sporobolus wrightii Munro ex Scribn.

vernacular big sacaton — species · Poaceae


USDA
SPWR2
GBIF
2704785
Rank
species
big sacaton (Sporobolus wrightii)
Platephotograph · Sue CarnahanCC BY source · iNaturalist ↗

§2Habit & range

Habit and range

Growth habit
Graminoid
Duration
Perennial
Group
Monocot
Family
Poaceae Barnhart
Genus
Sporobolus
§2a

Native status, by region

  • L48 Lower 48 States Native
§2b

County-level range

· 49 counties across 5 states/territories
Legend Native · 49 Introduced · 0 Both · 0 Hover a county for detail.

§3Cultivation specs · USDA

Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.

§3a

Tolerances

Drought
Medium
Shade
High
Moisture use
Medium
Fire
Medium
Salinity
Low
Anaerobic
None
CaCO₃
High
Hedging
None
§3b

Climate & soil

Cold tolerance
-13 °F minimum
Frost-free days
160 min.
Precipitation
5–20 in/yr
pH range
5.6–8
Root depth
20 in min.
Fertility need
Low
Soil texture
coarse, medium
§3c

Form & growth

Growth form
Bunch
Growth rate
Moderate
Lifespan
Moderate
Mature height
5.5 ft
Foliage texture
Coarse
Foliage colour
Green
Porosity (summer)
Dense
Porosity (winter)
Porous
Flower colour
Yellow
Fruit colour
Brown
Fire resistant
No
N fixation
None
Toxicity
None
§3d

Reproduction

Bloom period
Late Summer
Seed abundance
High
Seed begins
Summer
Seed ends
Fall
Spread rate
Moderate
Stratify
No
Seeds / lb
1,965,000
Propagation
seed
§3e

Use & availability

Commercial availability
Field Collections Only
Nursery stock
No
Browse palatability
Medium
Graze palatability
Medium
Palatable, human
No
Protein potential
Medium
Lumber
No
Christmas tree
No

§4Counties, by state

Recorded in 49 counties across 5 states/territories.


§5Sources & provenance

USDA PLANTS

Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.

plants.usda.gov/SPWR2 ↗

GBIF Backbone

Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.

gbif.org/species/2704785 ↗

Record version

Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:

usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26

fetched 2026-05-26T16:37:38Z