Plants perennial; cespitose, with innovations and thickened or knotty plant
bases; plant bases with woolly hairs, hairs coarse, to 2 cm. Culms 12-60
cm, erect, glabrous or hairy near the base, often shiny below the nodes. Sheaths glabrous,
summits shortly pilose, hairs to 0.5 mm; ligules 0.3-0.5 mm, ciliate; blades
3-11 cm long, 0.7-2 mm wide, involute or flat, glabrous abaxially, scabridulous
adaxially. Panicles 6-11 cm long, 2-4 cm wide, narrowly ovate, loosely
contracted; primary branches 1-3 cm, compact, appressed or diverging to
30º from the rachises, sometimes naked near the base; pulvini glabrous;
pedicels 0.2-3 mm, diverging, scabridulous. Spikelets 3-6(15) mm
long, 1.3-2 mm wide, linear lanceolate, stramineous, with 9-30 florets; disarticulation
irregular or basipetal, paleas persistent. Glumes subequal, 1-1.3 mm, ovate,
membranous, apices obtuse to acute; lemmas 1.4-1.6 mm, ovate, membranous,
glabrous, lateral veins conspicuous, green, sometimes obscure towards the apices,
apices obtuse; paleas 1.4-1.6 mm, hyaline, apices truncate, ciliolate;
anthers 3, 0.5-0.8 mm, yellowish. Caryopses 0.4-0.5 mm, oblong-ellipsoid,
strongly dorsally compressed, usually with a shallow dorsal groove, smooth to
finely striate, mostly light brown, bases often greenish. 2n
= unknown.
Eragrostis setifolia
is an Australian species that was collected around
the Santee Wool Combing Mill, Jamestown, Berkeley County, South Carolina, in 1958.
It is not known to have spread from that location. There is no illustration of
the species because it was a late addition to the treatment. For digital images,
see http://herbarium.usu.edu/webmanual/.