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.

Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia