Sporobolus purpurascens(Sw.) Ham.

purple dropseed

WFO wfo-0000901417 Accepted WFO 2026-06 6 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–f · 1 observation

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 1 time, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Sporobolus purpurascens, photographed by Cleveland Powell
fig. a Cleveland Powell, CC BY 4.0 / 2020-10-24 / obs. 101786088
Sporobolus purpurascens, photographed by Cleveland Powell
fig. b Cleveland Powell, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 101786123
Sporobolus purpurascens, photographed by Cleveland Powell
fig. c Cleveland Powell, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 101786131
Sporobolus purpurascens, photographed by Cleveland Powell
fig. d Cleveland Powell, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 101786145
Sporobolus purpurascens, photographed by Cleveland Powell
fig. e Cleveland Powell, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 101786094
Sporobolus purpurascens, photographed by Cleveland Powell
fig. f Cleveland Powell, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 101786110

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 21 botanical countries

Regions where Sporobolus purpurascens is native: Mexican Pacific Is., Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Texas, Belize, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Nicaragua, Panamá, Windward Is. Mexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestTexasBelizeBrazil NortheastBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaCubaEcuadorGuatemalaHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPanamá Leeward Is.Windward Is.
Native distribution of Sporobolus purpurascens, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Belize BLZ SOUTHERN AMERICA
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil Southeast BZL
Brazil West-Central BZC
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Ecuador ECU
Guatemala GUA
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Windward Is. WIN
Mexican Pacific Is. MXI NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS
Texas TEX

Not drawn on the map: Mexican Pacific Is.. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 8 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Agrostis purpurascens Sw.
  • Sporobolus densiflorus (E.Fourn.) Vasey
  • Sporobolus muelleri (E.Fourn.) Hitchc.
  • Vilfa densiflora E.Fourn.
  • Vilfa grisebachiana E.Fourn.
  • Vilfa liebmannii E.Fourn.
  • Vilfa muelleri E.Fourn.
  • Vilfa purpurascens (Sw.) P.Beauv.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.