''Eragrostis cilianensis'' is a species of

grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

known by several common names, including stinkgrass, candy grass, and gray lovegrass.

Distribution

This plant is native to much of

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago a ...

and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

but it is widely

naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

elsewhere, including nearly all of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

Description

This is an annual

bunchgrass Tussock grasses or bunch grasses are a group of grass species in the family Poaceae. They usually grow as singular plants in clumps, tufts, hummocks, or bunches, rather than forming a sod or lawn, in meadows, grasslands, and prairies. As perennial ...

forming tufts up to about half a meter in height. The stems are generally erect but may droop or bend. The stems have glandular tissue near the nodes and the long leaves are often dotted with glands as well. The plants have a strong scent. The branching

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

s have one to several spikelets per branch. Each spikelet is greenish brown, sometimes very slightly purple-tinted, and one half to two centimeters long. It is somewhat flattened and lined with 10 to over 40

floret This glossary of botanical terms is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to botany and plants in general. Terms of plant morphology are included here as well as at the more specific Glossary of plant morphology and Glossary o ...

References

External links

Jepson Manual Treatment — ''Eragrostis cilianensis''''Eragrostis cilianensis'' - U.C. Photo gallery
cilianensis Bunchgrasses of Africa Bunchgrasses of Asia Bunchgrasses of Europe {{Chloridoideae-stub