Eriochloa contracta Hitchc. Prairie Cupgrass

Habit: Densely tufted annual. Culms: 30-70 cm. tall, erect or sometimes decumbent at the base, pubescent at least about the nodes, freely branching above. Blades: Commonly 12-20 cm. long, usually not more than 5 mm. wide, flat, soon becoming conduplicate when drying, pubescent to glabrous, flaccid. Sheaths: Shorter or longer than the internodes, glabrous to short pubescent, especially near the nodes. Ligule: A ciliate ring of soft white hairs about 1 mm. long. Inflorescence: Panicle contracted, cylindric, usually less than 15 cm. long, composed of spikelike, closely overlapping, 1-sided racemes, 1-2 cm. long, the axis and rachilla villous. Spikelets: 3.5-4 mm. long, excluding the awntip, with a ringlike callus at the base, articulate below the callus, 1-flowered, in 2 rows on a flattened rachis, acute or acuminate, appressed-villous. Glumes: First glume reduced to a minute sheath adnate to the ringlike, usually colored callus, below the second glume which is equal to the sterile lemma, awntipped. Lemmas: Sterile lemma slightly shorter than the second glume, acuminate, usually enclosing a hyaline palea; fertile lemma indurate, minutely papillose-rugose, mucronate or awned, the awn often readily deciduous, the margins slightly inrolled, the back turned from the rachis. Palea: Enclosed by the lemma. Fruit: 2-2.5 mm. long, with an awn nearly 1 mm. long. Habitat: Open moist wet places, ditches, low fields. Distribution: Throughout.