Eragrostis trichodes (Nutt.) Alph. Wood, sand lovegrass. Perennial herb, rot rosetted, fibrous–rooted, tufted and many–stemmed at base, in range < 40 cm tall; shoots with basal and cauline leaves having sheaths concealing nodes and internodes, lacking glands, with some long hairs at top sheath and on collar.
Stems cylindric, < 2 mm diameter, nodes and internodes fully hidden with overlapping sheaths, smooth, glabrous, lacking glands.
Leaves alternate (not strongly distichous), simple with sheath; prophyll 2–keeled, triangular, ciliate on margins; sheath open, basal leaves with triangular sheath with or without vestigial blade, faintly low–ridged, with purple bands and tuft of long hairs 4(—5) mm long at top of sheath, margins without hairs, lacking lobes (auricles) at top; ligule densely ciliate, ca. 0.4 mm long; collar with long hairs 5 mm long on upper surface; blade linear, to 150 × 3 mm (diminished or absent on the lowest leaves), flat drying inrolled, entire, parallel–veined, upper surface finely ridged and somewhat scabrous.
Inflorescence spikelets, in open, terminal array, branchlets sometimes gathered at base by sheath of flag leaf, spikelets having 4—6 florets, lacking awns; branchlets mostly alternate but the uppermost sets appearing 3–whorled; branchlets ascending, with pulvinus in axil, 1.5—3 mm long, ± purple, each with several straight hairs, the longest branchlet to 120 mm long, axis fine, weakly ridged or not, not scabrous but with minute teeth, lacking glands, rachis finely low–ridged; stalk of spikelet spreading, fine, 5—13 mm long, > spikelet.
Spikelet compressed side–to–side, in range ca. 5 × 1.8—3.7 mm, with lemmas and fruits dehiscing but arching paleae persistent; glumes 2, subequal, lower glume keeled, 1.5—2.6 mm long, 1–veined, often purple, scabrous nearly to base, upper glume keeled, 2—2.5(—3) mm long, often purplish, 1–veined, scabrous midpoint to tip; lemma keeled, 2.6—3.2 mm long, > glume, 3–veined, veins green except at tip, initially short–ciliate above midpoint, scabrous on upper 1/3, often blushed red–purple or along keel, with minute hairs approaching tip; palea 2–keeled shallowly notched at tip, 2–veined, more narrow and < lemma, with folded margins 0.4 mm wide.
Flower bisexual; perianth (lodicules) 2, ± D–shaped, ca. 0.3 mm long, colorless, minutely bumpy; stamens 3, free; filaments initially 1 mm long, white; anthers dorsifixed (versatile), dithecal, 1.4 mm long, red–purple, longitudinally dehiscent; pistil 1; ovary superior, obovoid, 0.3—0.35 mm long, opague, glabrous, 1–chambered with 1 ovule; styles 2, 1 mm long, colorless, bottlebrushlike above midpoint.
Fruit achene (caryopsis), somewhat prismatic compressed front–to–back, ± 1 mm long, dark reddish brown, with a deep groove on 1 surface.
A. C. Gibson