Sheath bases usually glabrous. Spikelets mostly 3-6 mm. Glumes usually shorter than the florets; lemmas mostly 3-5.4 mm, usually 1-veined, sometimes faintly 3-veined; paleas mostly 3-5.4 mm. Fruits 1.8-2.7 mm.

Sporobolus vaginiflorus var. vaginiflorus is the most wide-ranging of the two varieties, extending north into Canada.

Infrequent to common in all parts of the state. It prefers poor, dry soils and is rarely absent from the borders of limestone highways. It seems to be spreading for I have seen it spread over a fallow field and over vacant lots in a few years. It can now be found almost everywhere along roads made of crushed rock, in waste places, on washed slopes, and in poor soil in pastures.