BC Conservation Data Centre: Species Summary
Sporobolus cryptandrus
sand dropseed
| Scientific Name: | Sporobolus cryptandrus (Torr.) Gray | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English Name: | sand dropseed | ||||||||||
| Classification / Taxonomy | |||||||||||
| Scientific Name - Concept Reference: | Kartesz, J.T. 1994. A synonymized checklist of the vascular flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland. 2nd edition. 2 vols. Timber Press, Portland, OR. | ||||||||||
| Classification Level: | Species | ||||||||||
| Species Group: | Vascular Plant | ||||||||||
| Species Code: | SPORCRY | ||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
| Conservation Status / Legal Designation | |||||||||||
| Global Status: | G5 (Jul 2025) | ||||||||||
| Provincial Status: | S5 (Apr 2019) | ||||||||||
| BC List: | Yellow | ||||||||||
| Provincial FRPA list: | |||||||||||
| Provincial Wildlife Act: | |||||||||||
| COSEWIC Status: | |||||||||||
| SARA Schedule: | |||||||||||
| General Status Canada: | 4 - Secure (2010) | ||||||||||
| Ecology & Life History | |||||||||||
| General Description: | |||||||||||
| Technical Description: | |||||||||||
| Similar Species: | |||||||||||
| Habitats: (Type / Subtype / Dependence) |
|||||||||||
| Global Habitat Comments: | Sporobolus cryptandrus occurs in floodplains, along shores, disturbed areas, "sandy soils and washes, on rocky slopes and calcareous ridges, and along roadsides in salt-desert scrub, pinyon-juniper woodlands, yellow pine forests, and desert grasslands" from 0-2900 m in elevation (FNA 2003, Weakley and the Southeastern Flora Team 2025). | ||||||||||
| Provincial Phenology: (1st half of month/ 2nd half of month) |
|||||||||||
| Elevation (m) (min / max): | Provincial: | ||||||||||
| Known Pests: | |||||||||||
| Pollen Vector: | |||||||||||
| Pollinator: | |||||||||||
| Dispersal: | |||||||||||
| Provincial Inventory | |||||||||||
| Inventory Priority: | |||||||||||
| Ownership of occurrences (Known locations): | |||||||||||
| Inventory Need: | |||||||||||
| Economic Attributes | |||||||||||
| Global Economic Use: |
Cereal
FOOD |
||||||||||
| Global Economic Comments: | Seeds of Sporobolus cryptandrus are used by the Navajo, Hopi, and Apache tribes for breads or mush (Native Plant Trust 2025). | ||||||||||
| Distribution | |||||||||||
| Endemic: | N | ||||||||||
| Global Range Comment: | Sporobolus cryptandrus occurs in North America, from Canada south to Mexico (FNA 2003). Its native range is from British Columbia east to Quebec, Canada, south throughout the western, central, and northeastern United States; it is considered introduced or potentially introduced in the southeastern United States east of the Appalachians (Weakley and the Southeastern Flora Team 2025) and in South America, Europe, and Asia (POWO 2025). In North America and Mexico, the range extent was estimated to be 27 million square kilometers using herbarium specimens, photo-based observations, and NatureServe Network occurrence data collected between 1994 and 2025 (GBIF 2025, iNaturalist 2025, NatureServe 2025, RARECAT 2025, SEINet 2025). | ||||||||||
| Disjunct, more common elsewhere: | |||||||||||
| Peripheral, major distribution elsewhere: | |||||||||||
| Authors / Contributors | |||||||||||
| Global Information Author: | N. Ventrella (2025) | ||||||||||
| Last Updated: | Jul 11, 2025 | ||||||||||
| Provincial Information Author: | |||||||||||
| Last Updated: | |||||||||||
| Last Literature Search: | |||||||||||
| References and Related Literature | |||||||||||
British Columbia Conservation Data Centre. Botany Program. 2000. Database containing records of rare plant collections and observations in the province of British Columbia. |
|||||||||||
Douglas, G.W., D. Meidinger, and J. Penny. 2002. Rare Native Vascular Plants of British Columbia, 2nd ed. B.C. Conserv. Data Centre, Terrestrial Inf. Branch, Victoria. 358pp. |
|||||||||||
Douglas, G.W., D. Meidinger, and J. Pojar, eds. 2001b. Illustrated Flora of British Columbia, Vol. 7, Monocotyledons (Orchidaceae through Zosteraceae). B.C. Minist. Sustainable Resour. Manage., and B.C. Minist. For. Victoria, BC. 379pp. |
|||||||||||
Flora of North America Editorial Committee (FNA). 2003a. Flora of North America north of Mexico. Vol. 25. Magnoliophyta: Commelinidae (in part): Poaceae, part 2. Oxford Univ. Press, New York. xxv + 781 pp. |
|||||||||||
Native Plant Trust. 2025. Go Botany website. Online. Available: https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org (accessed 2025). |
|||||||||||
Weakley, A.S., and Southeastern Flora Team. 2025. Flora of the southeastern United States Web App. Edition of February 18, 2025. University of North Carolina Herbarium (NCU), North Carolina Botanical Garden, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Online. Available: https://fsus.ncbg.unc.edu (accessed 2025). |
|||||||||||
Please visit the website Conservation Status Ranks for definitions of the data fields used in this summary report.
Suggested Citation:
B.C. Conservation Data Centre. 2025. Species Summary: Sporobolus cryptandrus. B.C. Minist. of Environment. Available: https://a100.gov.bc.ca/pub/eswp/ (accessed Oct 22, 2026).