Eragrostis dielsii Pilg.

Tufted annuals or short-lived perennials; rootbase sparsely hairy. Culms erect to prostrate, 3–55 cm high. Leaves: sheath much wider than blade at orifice; ligule 0.5–0.8 mm long; blade at first flat and to 3.5 mm wide, finally folded or involute and often filiform. Inflorescence a spiciform or contracted panicle, 2–17 cm long, 1–7 cm wide, sometimes a raceme or spike. Spikelets clustered, sessile or subsessile, 4.5–50 mm long, 0.7–2.5 mm wide, biconvex or terete, often curved; rachilla flexuose, persistent or finally deciduous; florets (9–) 21–81, closely overlapping. Glumes ±equal, ovate, 1.3–1.8 mm long. Lemma ovate, 1.5–2.5 mm long, membranous to indurated with scarious margins wider near apex, thickly 3–5-nerved with lateral nerves often paired, often scabrousgranular or tuberculate. Palea persistent or falling after lemma; body spathulate to obovate; keels and flaps thickened. Anthers 0.3–0.5 mm long. Grain strongly compressed, often concave on dorsal side, 0.6–1.2 mm long, 0.2–0.3 mm thick.

Common in a wide rangeof habitats and soil types from heavy, seasonally flooded clays to sandylimestone and saline soils and in disturbed roadside and bore areas.