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little lovegrass

Habit Plants annual, 10–45 cm tall, tufted.
Culms

erect to decumbent, sometimes with a ring of glandular tissue below the nodes.

Leaves

sheaths sometimes glandular on the midveins; tops with hairs to 4 mm;

blades 1.5– 10 cm × 1–3(4)mm;

margins sometimes with saucer-like glands.

Inflorescences

4–20 × 2.2–8(10)cm; ovate; open to contracted;

rachises sometimes with glandular spots or pits below the nodes or rarely with a glandular ring;

glands usually dull; greenish gray to straw-colored;

primary branches 0.5–6 cm, diverging 20–100° from the inflorescence axis;

pedicels 1–4 mm; stiff; straight, divergent, usually with a distal ring of saucer-like glands;

disarticulation acropetal;

paleas persistent.

Spikelets

4–7(11) × 1.1–2.2 mm, mostly reddish purple to greenish to occasionally grayish, 7–12(20) florets.

Glumes

broadly ovate, membranous;

lower glumes 0.9–1.4 mm;

upper glumes 1.2–1.6 mm.

Caryopses

0.4–0.7 mm, ellipsoid, not grooved.

Lemmas

1.4–1.8 mm, broadly ovate, membranous;

keels occasionally with 1–2 saucer-like glands;

tips acute to obtuse.

Paleas

1.3– 1.7 mm; hyaline;

keels smooth or minutely scabrous.

Anthers

2, 0.2–0.3 mm; reddish brown.

2n

=40.

Eragrostis lugens

Eragrostis minor

Distribution
[BONAP county map]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Disturbed places, pavement cracks. 50–900 m. BW, Col, Lava, WV. CA, ID, NV, WA; throughout most of Canada and US; Europe. Exotic.

Eragrostis minor closely resembles E. pectinacea, which is glandless. Similar Eragrostis cilianensis has denser inflorescences and wider spikelets.

Source Flora of Oregon, volume 1, page 405
Barbara Wilson, Richard Brainerd, Nick Otting
Sibling taxa
E. cilianensis, E. curvula, E. hypnoides, E. lutescens, E. mexicana, E. minor, E. pectinacea, E. pilosa
E. cilianensis, E. curvula, E. hypnoides, E. lutescens, E. mexicana, E. pectinacea, E. pilosa
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