Flora of Israel | Prickly Drop-seed Grass

Sporobolus pungens, Sporobolus arenarius,
Prickly Drop-seed Grass,Hebrew: מדחול דוקרני, Arabic: أبوركاب

Scientific name:   (Schreb.) Kunth
Synonym name:   Sporobolus arenarius (Gouan) Duv.-Jouve
Common name:   Prickly Drop-seed Grass
Hebrew name:   מדחול דוקרני
Arabic name:   أبوركاب
Family:   Gramineae / Poaceae, דגניים


Life form:   Chamaephyte
Leaves:   Alternate, entire
Flowers:   Green
Flowering Period:   June, July, August, September, October
Habitat:   Mediterranean strand
Distribution:   Mediterranean Woodlands and Shrublands
Chorotype:   Mediterranean
Summer shedding:   Perennating


Derivation of the botanical name:

Sporobolus, Greek spora or sporos, seed or spore; bolis or bolos, casting, in the sense of throwing or dispersing seeds.

pungens, piercing, pungent, terminating in a hard sharp point.
arenarius, arena, sand, slime, mud; arius, connected to or possessed by; relating to sand.
The Hebrew name: מדחול, madhol, compounded of מד, mad (=meter), and חול, hol (=sand).

  • The standard author abbreviation Schreb. is used to indicate Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber (1739 – 1810), a German naturalist.
  • The standard author abbreviation Kunth is used to indicate Carl Sigismund Kunth (1788 – 1850), a German botanist.
  • The standard author abbreviation Gouan is used to indicate Antoine Gouan (1733 – 1821), French botanist at Montpellier and correspondent of Linnaeus. He was the first to introduce the binominal nomenclature in France. In 1765 Gouan published the first regional flora in the Linnean style: Flora monspeliaca.
  • The standard author abbreviation Duv.-Jouve is used to indicate Joseph Duval-Jouve (1810 – 1883), a French botanist.