Gopher Tail Love Grass

Eastern desert, Res Sea coastal strip and Gebel Elba.

Throughout the tropics.

Sandy soils.

Annual.

Eragrostis ciliaris is often confused with E. ciliata, but the latter species is a perennial with lemmas 2–2.5 mm, membranous, and pubescent abaxially and the palea slightly shorter than the lemma.

The woolly spike is usually distinctive, but sometimes the panicle shape may approach extreme forms of Eragrostis tenella; the cilia on the lemma-keel, though rather obscure, are then the surest means of determination. Eragrostis ciliaris also differs in the possession of only 2 stamens.

Specimens with the inflorescence reduced to an ovoid head have been separated as var. brachystachya, but they seem to be no more than a dwarfed form of arid habitats.

In sufficient quantity this grass affords good grazing.

A sporadic annual in dry places. This is a recent addition to the grass flora of Taiwan, and is probably a naturalized grass.

Annual. Culms slender, tufted, 10–70 cm tall. Leaf sheaths with long silky hairs; ligules a line of ca. 0.4 mm hairs; leaf blades ca. 15 × 0.3 cm, adaxial surface with silky hairs. Panicle purplish, contracted, spikelike. Spikelets ca. 2 mm, many-flowered. Glumes chartaceous, deltoid-lanceolate,1-veined, apex pointed, lower glume slightly shorter than upper glume, upper glume ca. 1 mm. Lemmas chartaceous, 0.8–1.3 mm, midrib of back with short glandular hairs, glabrous to scabrous along the margins, apex mucronate. Palea oblanceolate, chartaceous, equal to lemma, along 2 keels ciliate, cilia longer than the width of the palea. Caryopsis ca. 0.3 mm, the embryo 1/2 the length of the caryopsis. Fl. and fr. in autumn. 2n = 20, 40.

Culm slender, tufted. Blade about 15 cm long by 3 mm wide, surface sparingly covered with silky hairs; ligule about 0.4 mm long, a ring of hairs; sheath densely covered with long silky hairs. Inflorescence a spike-like contracted panicle. Spikelets many-flowered, about 2 mm long; glumes chartaceous, deltoid-lanceolate, l-nerved, pointed at apex; the lower slightly shorter than the upper; the upper about 1 mm long; lemma chartaceous, about 1 mm long, 3-nerved, mucronate, backside of midrib covered with short glandular hairs; palea chartaceous, as long as the lemma, oblanceolate, 2-keeled, cilia longer than the width of the palea. Caryopsis about 0.3 mm long; the embryo 1/2 the length of the caryopsis.

Tufted annual; culms 5-60 cm high, erect. Leaf-blades flat, up to 12 cm long and 5 mm wide. Panicle spike-like, but often ± lobed or interrupted, 1-20 cm long, woolly, the spikelets densely clustered. Spikelets 6-12-flowered, ovate, 2-4.5 mm long, fluffy, often purplish, breaking up from the apex, the rhachilla fragile; glumes lanceolate, subequal, 0.7-1.2 mm long, acute; lemmas oblong-elliptic, 0.9-1.5 mm long, the keels (at least in the upper lemmas) bearing a few short stiff hairs, otherwise smooth, broadly obtuse, more or less obscurely mucronate; paleakeels tuberculate-ciliate, the hairs 0.6-0.7 mm long, exceeding the width of the adjacent floret; anthers 2, 0.2 mm long. Caryopsis ellipsoid, 0.3-0.5 mm long.

Distributed in the tropics and subtropics of the Old World and New World.

Distribution: Pakistan (Sind, Baluchistan & Punjab); tropical and South Africa, extending through Arabia and the Mascarene Islands to India; tropical America.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: through-out most of the year.

Dry places. Taiwan [tropical and subtropical regions of the world].

Poa ciliaris Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, 2: 875. 1759; Cynodon ciliaris (Linnaeus) Raspail; Megastachya ciliaris (Linnaeus) P. Beauvois; Poa amboinica Linnaeus.

Annuals, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems trailing, spreading or prostrate, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem internodes solid or spongy, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly basal, below middle of stem, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath hairy, hispid or prickly, Leaf sheath hairy at summit, throat, or collar, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blade margins folded, involute, or conduplicate, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Leaf blades scabrous, roughened, or wrinkled, Ligule present, Ligule a fringe of hairs, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence a contracted panicle, narrowly paniculate, branches appressed or ascending, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence branches more than 10 to numerous, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets laterally compressed, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 3-7 florets, Spikelets with 8-40 florets, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating above the glumes, glumes persistent, Spikelets disarticulating beneath or between the florets, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly pre sent, Glumes equal or subequal, Glumes distinctly unequal, Glumes shorter than adjacent lemma, Glumes glandular, Glumes 1 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma similar in texture to glumes, Lemma 3 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma apex truncate, rounded, or obtuse, Lemma awnless, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea shorter than lemma, Palea 2 nerved or 2 keeled, Palea keels winged, scabrous, or ciliate, Stamens 2, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear.

Eragrostis ciliaris, the gophertail lovegrass, is a species of grass (family Poaceae). It is native to the Old World Tropics; nearly all of Africa, Madagascar, other Indian Ocean islands, the Arabian Peninsula, the Indian Subcontinent, Myanmar, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines and a number of Pacific islands, and has been introduced to the New World Tropics and Subtropics, from the southern United States to Argentina, the Caribbean, and other Pacific islands. Its seeds are edible and nutritious, but quite small and difficult to harvest and handle, so it is usually regarded as a famine food.