United States Department of Agriculture
Natural Resources Conservation Service		 Texas Go to Accessibility Information
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Green Sprangletop

Scientific Name: Leptochloa dubia (H.B.K.) Nees
Common Name: Green Sprangletop

Morphological Characteristics:

Habit- native warm season perennial grass reaching 30-120 cm. tall; without stolons or rhizomes; flowers May to November; reproduces by seed
Leaves- ligule a fringed membrane about 0.5 mm. long; blades dullish blue-green, glabrous, scabrous, or sparsely pilose, inrolled on drying, 5-30 cm long and 2-8 mm broad; sheaths glabrous or lower ones pilose
Inflorescence- 2-15 unbranched primary branches 4-12 cm long, loosely erect to spreading, well spaced; Spikelets subsessile and loosely to closely imbricated on branch, solitary
at nodes, with 3 to 8 florets
Fruit- caryopsis

Habitat and Range: occasional to frequent in all regions of Texas except the Pineywoods and Post Oak Savannah

Conservation Use:

Why collect this plant? Texas Plant Materials Centers have identified this plant as having potential benefits to the following conservation practice standards: 645 Upland Wildlife Habitat Management; 550 Range Planting; 393 Filter Strip; and 342 Critical Area Planting. Your assistance in collecting this plant helps support the NRCS conservation practice standards which are employed daily to conserve the natural resources of Texas!

Centers Requesting Seed:

E. Kika de la Garza PMC

How to Collect Seed

  1. Identify native plant stands in your area. You can go to the following websites for helpful photos http://plants.usda.gov or http://www.noble.org/imagegallery/index.html or www.wildflower.org
  2. Determine if seed is mature. Mature seed is typically dry and will easily separate from the seed head.
  3. Hand strip mature seed by grasping the bottom of the seed head then gently pulling away from the base of the plant. Deposit seed in a brown paper sack. Collect seed from a minimum of 30 to 50 plants.
  4. Label each collection as it is made so collections do not get mixed up. Information required includes: Collector’s name, number of plants collected, location (parish, city, highway, GPS coordinates), site description (soil type, slope, plants growing in association).
  5. Complete NRCS-ECS-580; Plant Collection Information Form and mail with collected seeds to the NRCS Plant Materials Center requesting the species.

E. Kika de la Garza Plant Materials Center
3409 N FM 1355
Kingsville, TX 78363

Helpful Tips

Look for superior plants that display differences in color, height, or forage abundance and record observations. Differences in growing site or location should be made into separate collections if they are separated by more than 1 mile between sites.

Other Photos:

Green Sprangletop

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NRCS Species for 2008 Plant Collections - Green Sprangletop (PDF; 1 MB)