Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Either of two perennial grasses of western North America (Sporobolus wrightii or S. airoides), used for forage.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun See zacaton.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A tufted perennial grass grown in the southwestern United States and Mexico and used for hay and pasture in dry alkaline areas.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[American Spanish zacatón, from zacate, coarse grass, from Nahuatl zacatl, grass, straw.]

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Examples

  • The typical desert shrubs and grasses growing in these environments, such as creosotebush, tarbush, fourwing saltbush, blackbrush, gyp grama, and alkali sacaton, must withstand large diurnal ranges in temperature, low available moisture, and an extremely high evapotranspiration rate.

    Ecoregions of Texas (EPA) 2009

  • Brushy species from adjacent dry uplands occur at the margins, such as honey mesquite, huisache, blackbrush, and lotebush, with some grasses such as multiflowered false rhodesgrass, sacaton, cottontop, and plains bristlegrass.

    Ecoregions of Texas (EPA) 2009

  • Native grasses included alkali sacaton, galleta grass, poverty threeawn, sand dropseed, and Indian ricegrass.

    Ecoregions of New Mexico (EPA) 2009

  • The typical desert shrubs and grasses, the dominant creosotebush, along with tarbush, fourwing saltbush, acacias, gyp grama, and alkali sacaton, must withstand large seasonal and diurnal ranges in temperature, low available moisture, and a high evapotranspiration rate.

    Ecoregions of New Mexico (EPA) 2009

  • Vegetation of alkali sacaton, fourwing saltbush, and greasewood is found in the low areas.

    Ecoregions of New Mexico (EPA) 2009

  • Natural vegetation includes fourwing saltbush and alkali sacaton.

    Ecoregions of New Mexico (EPA) 2009

  • Floodplains have alkaline soils that support greasewood, alkali sacaton, seepweed, and shadscale.

    Ecoregions of Utah (EPA) 2009

  • Vegetation is dominated by black greasewood, spiny hopsage, bud sagebrush, Wyoming big sagebrush, inland saltgrass, alkali sacaton, and basin wildrye.

    Ecoregions of Nevada (EPA) 2009

  • The arid climate (just 6 inches of precipitation per year) supports desert shrubs and grasses: greasewood, Gardner saltbush, shadscale, alkali sacaton, and saltgrass.

    Ecoregions of Wyoming (EPA) 2009

  • Saltbush species, alkali sacaton, sand dropseed, and mixed grama grasses occur.

    Ecoregions of New Mexico (EPA) 2009

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