Prairie Cupgrass

Eriochloa contracta A.S. Hitchc.

Poaceae (Grass Family)

▲ ▼ mature plants

▲ ▼ mature plants

▲ ▼ mature plants

▲ ▼ flowering stem with panicle inflorescence

▲ ▼ flowering stem with panicle inflorescence

▲ ▼ flowering stem with panicle inflorescence

▲  flowering stem close-up

▲ separate seeds/fruit from flowering stem tips

▲ ▼stem and leaves

▲ ▼ ligule area (above) and collar region (below) on leaves

 

Prairie Cupgrass: 

·         Warm-season annual grass that grows 1-3 feet tall, sometimes more sprawling than upright, with bright green mostly hairless leaves

·         Inflorescence is a compressed panicle, with light green spikelets and seeds on tiny purplish cup-like structures

·         Individual flowers have tiny awns

·         Found in southeast Missouri and in other southern and western states, particularly in reduced-tillage row crops

·         Similar Southwestern Cupgrass:

o   has broader leaves covered with soft hairs

o   has fewer branches in the inflorescence and florets lack awns

·         inflorescences similar to Woolly Cupgrass except they are not as hairy & have awns

·         increasing in reduced tillage row crops