Eragrostis minor
Little love grass
(c) Douglas Goldman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), uploaded by Douglas Goldman · licence
Family: Poaceae · Type: Grass · Not Native
Eragrostis minor (Little love grass) is a non-native California grass in the Poaceae family, recognized by glands on spikelet stalks but not on glumes/lemmas.
Little love grass is a naturalized annual grass found in northern Coast Ranges, northern Sierra Nevada foothills, Central Valley, southern California coastal areas, Modoc Plateau, and eastern Mojave Desert in disturbed soils at elevations below 1,400 meters. Flowering from June to September, this grass produces small gray-green spikelets in delicate, open branching clusters 3.5 to 15 centimeters long. Growing with erect to prostrate stems up to 60 centimeters tall that branch at the base and have distinctly glandular nodes, it develops flexible grass blades 2 to 10 centimeters long and 1 to 4 millimeters wide. Its leaf sheaths are notably soft-hairy near the collar, with blades that are flat or slightly rolled and sometimes featuring tiny wart-like glands along the margins. The tiny, compact spikelets contain 8 to 12 florets and produce minute round to elliptic fruits approximately 0.5 millimeters long.
Identification and appearance
Key characters: 11 sympatric species; glands on spikelet stalks but not on glumes/lemmas is diagnostic
Habitat and range
Habitat: Disturbed soils
Elevation: < 1400 m
Outside California: to eastern United States, native to Europe
Bloom period
Eragrostis minor blooms Jun-Sep.
How to tell it apart
vs Poa: Eragrostis spikelets are many-flowered and laterally flattened with 3-veined lemmas and no cobwebby tuft at the floret base; Poa lemmas are 5-veined, keeled and boat-tipped, often with webby hairs at the base.; vs Bromus: Eragrostis lemmas are small and awnless with 3 prominent veins; Bromus lemmas are larger, many-veined, and usually bear an awn from a notched tip.; vs Sporobolus: Eragrostis spikelets carry several florets each; Sporobolus spikelets hold a single floret and the ripe seed often falls free or swells with mucilage.; vs Muhlenbergia: Eragrostis spikelets are many-flowered and awnless in an open panicle; Muhlenbergia spikelets are 1-flowered and the lemma is commonly awn-tipped.; vs Leptochloa: Eragrostis carries spikelets in an open, spreading panicle; Leptochloa arranges them along slender, one-sided spike-like branches.
Frequently asked questions
Is Eragrostis minor native to California?
No. Eragrostis minor is not native to California (recorded as not native).
When does Eragrostis minor bloom?
Eragrostis minor blooms Jun-Sep.
What plant family does Eragrostis minor belong to?
Eragrostis minor is in the Poaceae family, genus Eragrostis.
What habitat does Eragrostis minor grow in?
Eragrostis minor grows in Disturbed soils.
Related species
Other California species in the same genus, family, or bioregion.
Sources: Jepson eFlora · CalPhotos
Last updated 2026-10-07
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Cal-IPC, and more.