This is a species of mixed origins in British Columbia, with both native and introduced populations. It has a weedy habit and is found on roadsides, in waste places and on cultivated ground. The Lower Mainland populations are considered introduced. In the Okanagan, populations occur most commonly on roadsides and in agricultural fields, and rarely as a shoreline plant amongst other rare native annual species. Distinguishing native strains from introduced strains is impossible in the field.
Source:
Frank Lomer, British Columbia Conservation Data Centre Species Notes, 2010.
General: Annual, tufted grass from fibrous roots; stems several, erect to abruptly bent, spreading, 10-80 cm tall.
Leaves: Sheaths fringed with fine hairs at the summit, the hairs up to 4 mm long; blades 2-20 cm long, 1-4.5 mm wide, flat to in-rolled, more or less rough short-hairy above and smooth below; ligules 0.2-0.5 mm long, fringed with fine hairs.
Flowers: Inflorescence an open, sometimes congested, egg-shaped to pyramidal panicle, 5-25 cm long, 3-12 (15) cm wide, the branches 0.6-8.5 cm long, spreading 0-80degree from the stem axis, solitary or paired on the lowest 2 nodes; spikelets appressed to the branches, 3.5-11 mm long, 1.2-2.5 mm wide, 6- to 22-flowered, linear to cylindrical, flattened, greyish, yellowish-brown, or dark reddish-purple; glumes 0.5-1.7 mm long, awl-like to egg-shaped or lanceolate, narrow, 1-nerved, translucent, the lower glumes 0.5-1.1 (1.5) mm long, the upper glumes 1-1.7 mm long, usually broader than the lower ones; lemmas 1-2.2 mm long, egg-shaped or lanceolate, translucent to membranous, more or less keeled, with conspicuous lateral nerves, greyish-green below, reddish-purple above, the tips sharp-pointed; paleas 1-2 mm long, persistent, translucent to membranous, the tips rounded; stamens 3, anthers 0.2-0.7 mm long, purplish.
Notes: Eragrostis pectinacea is often difficult to separate from E. pilosa. The lemmas of E. pectinacea have more conspicuous lateral nerves than those of E. pilosa.
If more than one illustration is
available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two
subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below.
Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.
Moist to dry sandy roadsides and waste places in the lowland and steppe zones; rare in SW (where probably introduced) and SC BC; disjunctly E to ON, PQ and NS and S to ME, MA, PA, SC, FL, MS, LA, TX, NM, AZ and CA.
