| Author | C.A. Meyer ex Steudel | |
| Distribution | Mountains: unspecified habitat on Cedar Cliff Mountain in Buncombe Co. in 1900; unspecified habitat at 1300 meters, off Forest Service road 275 in Madison Co. in 1979; mapped in Mitchell County by Blomquist (1948). Piedmont: RAB (1968) says "waste ground" in Granville Co. (specimen not seen).
N.B. to southern Ont. and MN, south to GA and OK. | |
| Abundance | Very rare and local in the Mountains. As NC lies at the southeastern edge of the range, it likely is genuinely very rare. The last record is from 1979, and thus it is best to consider it as of historical occurrence (SH). Obviously, this species deserves to be tracked by the NCNHP as Significantly Rare, not as a Watch List species. | |
| Habitat | No NC data; presumably montane slopes near creeks. The natural habitat for this species is streambanks and sandbars, but also found on roadsides and forest clearings. Elsewhere in its range, it has a tendancy to be weedy. | |
| Phenology | Flowering and fruiting August-October. | |
| Identification | This small lovegrass is easy to overlook, as it usually grows a foot tall or less. The inflorescence is narrowly elliptical and with short branches. Spikelets grow at the branch tips and are only 2-5 mm long and with only 2-5 florets each. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | None
Species in the genus Eragrostis -- the lovegrasses -- often have inflorescences that are larger than the rest of the plant. Such inflorescences are very open and airy, but other species have more contracted inflorescences. Each spikelet is laterally compressed and contains few to many florets, which lack awns. | |
| Other Common Name(s) | None | |
| State Rank | S1 [SH] | |
| Global Rank | G5 | |
| State Status | W7 [SR] | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | FACW link |
| USACE-emp | FACW link |
