Distichlis palmeri or nipa grass, is a saltgrass of the family Poaceae

Poaceae

The Poaceae is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of flowering plants. Members of this family are commonly called grasses, although the term "grass" is also applied to plants that are not in the Poaceae lineage, including the rushes and sedges...

, grows in the Sonoran desert

Sonoran Desert

The Sonoran Desert is a North American desert which straddles part of the United States-Mexico border and covers large parts of the U.S. states of Arizona and California and the northwest Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur. It is one of the largest and hottest...

 of Western Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

, and produces a grain

GRAIN

GRAIN is a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems. Our support takes the form of independent research and analysis, networking at local, regional and...

 with some similarities to wheat

Wheat

Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...

. Originally a major food source of the Cocopah tribe in the western United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, it was thought to be extinct. A search for remaining plants was successful, and was followed by a breeding program that increased yield from 5kg/Ha to 2000kg/Ha. The grain is currently also being bred for commercial use in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. It is drought resistant and can absorb seawater. As a halophyte

Halophyte

A halophyte is a plant that grows where it is affected by salinity in the root area or by salt spray, such as in saline semi-deserts, mangrove swamps, marshes and sloughs, and seashores. An example of a halophyte is the salt marsh grass Spartina alterniflora . Relatively few plant species are...

, the salt it absorbs is excreted from specialised cells (which are not stomata) on the leaf surface.

The United Nations Environment Report (2006) says of the plant: "It is a strong candidate for a major global food crop and could become this desert's greatest gift to the world." Some varieties of D. Palmeri have been the subjects of US patents.