This bunchgrass is native to eastern, central North America, including the Great Plains, extreme Southwestern United States, and the California Sierra Nevada.

[1] It is present elsewhere in western and northwestern North America, as native or an introduced species.

It grows in many types of habitats, including grasslands, open woodlands, and montane meadows, often in disturbed areas and in sandy and calcareous soils.

Sporobolus vaginiflorus is an annual bunchgrass producing one or more stems 70 to 80 cm (28 to 31 in) long.

They are sheathed by the leaf bases, which are sometimes swollen or inflated and may have lines or tufts of short hairs.