2. Eragrostis capillaris (L.) Nees (lace grass)

Pl. 147 g, h; Map 490

Plants annual, forming tufts. Flowering stems 10–50 cm long, erect or ascending, glabrous. Leaf sheaths usually with a tuft or line of hairs at the tip, also hairy along the margins, glabrous on the back, the ligule 0.1–0.6 mm long. Leaf blades 4–30 cm long, 1–5 mm wide, flat or occasionally with the margins inrolled, glabrous or roughened to hairy on the upper surface. Inflorescences relatively open, broad panicles 12–50 cm long, 1/2–2/3 the size of the entire plant, ovate in outline, the branches loosely ascending to spreading, the axis and branches usually roughened. Spikelets 1.5–3.0(–3.5) mm long, 0.9–2.0 mm wide, mostly long‑stalked, mostly spreading from the branches, with 2 or 3(4) perfect florets. Pattern of disarticulation beginning with the glumes, then the lemmas and fruits shed, leaving the persistent paleas and rachilla. Lower glume 0.7–1.4 mm long, lanceolate, somewhat roughened along the midnerve. Upper glume 0.9–1.5 mm long, ovate, somewhat roughened along the midnerve. Lemmas 1.2–1.6 mm long, ovate, sharply pointed at the tip, keeled, the lateral nerves usually relatively inconspicuous, roughened on the midnerve. Anthers 0.2–0.4 mm long. Fruits 0.4–0.8 mm long, oblong in outline, with a deep, usually broad, longitudinal groove, reddish brown. 2n=50, 100. July–October.

Common nearly throughout Missouri, but apparently absent from portions of the northwestern quarter (eastern U.S. west to Wisconsin and Texas). Upland prairies, glades, mesic to dry upland forests, savannas, ledges of bluffs, and less commonly margins of ponds and banks of rivers; also fallow fields, old fields, ditches, roadsides, and open, disturbed areas.

Steyermark (1963) noted that the lower portions of the plants of this species usually are tinged pinkish purple and that they frequently are infested with some sort of woolly aphid.