Sporobolus heterolepis (Northern dropseed)

5/22/2010 · Garden in the Woods, Framingham, Massachusetts · ≈ 1½ × 1′ (52 × 34 cm)

5/15/2010 · Garden in the Woods, Framingham, Massachusetts · ≈ 2½ × 2′ (87 × 58 cm)

Kingdom	Plantae	Plants, but not fungi, lichens, or algae (from Stearn's Botanical Latin)
Subkingdom	Tracheobionta	Vascular plants—plants with a “circulatory system” for delivering water and nutrients
Division	Magnoliophyta	Flowering plants, also known as angiosperms
Class	Liliopsida	Monocots (plants with a single seed leaf); includes the lily family
Subclass	Commelinidae	Dayflowers and spiderworts, and several others
Order	Cyperales	Flowering plants including grasses
Family	Poaceae	Grasses (but not sedges or rushes)
Genus	Sporobolus	From the Greek spora or sporos, “seed or spore,” and bolis or bolos, “a casting,” in the sense of throwing or dispersing seeds, also from boleo, “to throw”
Species	heterolepis	“Diversely scaled”