A genus of salt-tolerant grasses that grow in alkaline or saline soils, commonly called saltgrass.
From distichal (two-ranked) + Greek -is (noun suffix). The genus name refers to these grasses' characteristic two-ranked arrangement of leaves along the stem.
Distichlis stricta is found in harsh desert salt marshes where almost nothing else grows—it's an extremophile plant that could someday help us grow crops in our saltiest damaged soils!
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