9. Eragrostis hirsuta (Michx.) Nees (bigtop love grass)

Pl. 146 a, b; Map 597

E. hirsuta var. laevivaginata Fernald

Plants perennial, forming tufts. Flowering stems 20–130 cm long, erect or ascending, sometimes from spreading bases, glabrous. Leaf sheaths with a line or tuft of hairs at the tip, usually also hairy along the margins and on the surfaces, rarely glabrous, the ligule 0.2–0.4 mm long. Leaf blades 8–40 cm long, 4–10 mm wide, flat or with the margins inrolled, especially toward the tip, hairy on the upper surface at the base, otherwise glabrous or sometimes roughened on the upper surface toward the tip. Inflorescences open, broad panicles 25–90 cm long, usually more than 1/2 as long as the stem, ovate to broadly ovate in outline, the branches loosely ascending to spreading, the axis and branches roughened, usually with a small tuft of hairs in the axils of the main branches. Spikelets 2–4 mm long, 1.0–1.2 mm wide, with slender, mostly long stalks, spreading from the branches, with 2–6 perfect florets. Pattern of disarticulation with the glumes shed first, then the lemmas and fruits, and usually eventually the paleas, leaving the persistent rachilla. Lower glume 1.4–2.0 mm long, lanceolate, roughened along the midnerve. Upper glume 1.6–2.2 mm long, lanceolate, roughened along the midnerve. Lemmas 2.0–2.4 mm long, ovate, sharply pointed at the tip, rounded to bluntly angled on the back, the lateral nerves faint, roughened along the midnerve toward the tip. Anthers 0.2–0.4 mm long. Fruits 0.5–0.8 mm long, oblong in outline, brown. 2n=100. July–October.