2. Agrostis elliottiana Schult. (awned bent grass)

Pl. 129 e, f; Map 524

Plants annual, forming delicate tufts. Flowering stems 4–30 cm long, erect or ascending, sometimes from spreading bases. Leaf sheaths glabrous to slightly roughened, the ligule 1–5 mm long. Leaf blades 1–7 cm long, 1–2 mm wide, flat or the margins inrolled, roughened, green to yellowish green. Inflorescences 3–20 cm long, open panicles, erect to somewhat nodding, the main branches spreading to ascending, slender, branched again near the middle, glabrous. Glumes 1.1–2.4 mm long. Lemma 0.8–2.0 mm long, bluntly pointed or with 2 minute, hairlike teeth at the tip, usually somewhat roughened, with a slender, bent or twisted awn attached just below the tip, this 3–10 mm long, longer than the spikelet. Palea absent or much less than 1/2 as long as the lemma, nerveless. Stamen 1 per floret, the anthers 0.2–0.4 mm long. Fruits 0.8–1.2 mm long, yellowish brown to reddish brown. 2n=14.

Scattered, mostly south of the Missouri River (southeastern U.S. west to Kansas and California; Mexico; introduced in the northeastern U.S.). Upland prairies, glades, and dry upland forests, on acidic substrates; also pastures, lawns, old fields, roadsides, railroads, and dry, open, disturbed areas.

Reeder and Reeder (1986) noted that A. elliottiana has spikelets with the floret containing a single stamen with an unusual, tiny anther composed of two nearly separate pollen sacs. All of the Missouri specimens examined to date conform with these observations. These authors also suggested that the species might have cleistogamous spikelets. The extremely high rate of fruit production in Missouri specimens is in agreement with this suggestion.