Eragrostis parviflora
(R.Br.) Trin. Weeping Love-grassTufted annual, or under appropriate conditions, perennial, culms ascending to erect, to 130 cm high (occasionally plants dwarfed with spreading culms only c. 10 cm long). Leaves strongly ribbed, glabrous, or with marginal hairs; blade flat or inrolled, to 20 cm long and 4 mm wide. Inflorescence typically a rather narrow panicle to 50 cm long, lower branches whorled, branches remaining erect, or occasionally widely spreading, the spikelets usually remaining almost appressed to their branches. Spikelet mostly 5–18-flowered, 3–12 mm long and 1–1.5 mm wide, dark grey- to purplish-green; glumes acute or erose at apex, 0.7–1.8 mm long, the upper only usually scabrous along the keel and longer than the lower by c. 0.5 mm; lemma 1.5–2 mm long, obtuse, usually finely scabrous along the keel; palea slightly shorter than lemma; anthers c. 0.2 mm long. Flowers Oct.–Jun.
LoM, MuM, Wim, VVP, VRiv, MSB, RobP, MuF, GipP, OtP, Gold, CVU, NIS, EGL, EGU, HSF, HNF. All mainland States. Occurs naturally on and near the Murray River floodplain and in warmer districts in the vicinity of major watercourses, e.g. Snowy River above Buchan, Loddon River at Bridgewater. Also recorded from a few sites where apparently introduced via irrigation or stock, e.g. Lake Glenmaggie near Heyfield and old stockyards near Flemington, an inner western suburb of Melbourne.
Walsh, N.G. (1994). Poaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 2, Ferns and Allied Plants, Conifers and Monocotyledons, pp. 356–627. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
