Vegetative Morphology
Culms	20-100 cm.
Ligules	0.4-0.75 mm, erose-ciliate.
Blades	2-45 cm long, 0.3-1.5(2) mm wide, involute to filiform.
Reproductive Morphology
Panicles	5-15 cm long, 0.5-1(2) cm wide, sometimes nodding, spikelets loosely to densely arranged.
Spikelets	2.3-5 mm.
Lower glumes	usually less than 1/3 as wide as the upper glumes.
Upper glumes	1.8-2.9 mm, obovate to oblanceolate, width/length ratio 0.16-0.45.
Lowest lemmas	2-3 mm, scabridulous distally.
Distal lemmas	scabrous.
Awns of distal lemmas	absent or, if rarely present, (0.1)1-3 mm.
Anthers	(0.5)1-1.9 mm.

Chromosome Number(s)

2n = 14

Typical Habitat(s)

Found in sandy soils of pine and mixed pine forests from 0-450 meters.

Nativity / Range

Ranging mainly from the coastal plain to the piedmont of the southeastern United States.

Similar Species

It differs from Sphenopholis obtusata in possessing narrower leaves and scabrous distal lemmas (occasionally scabrous in S. obtusata).

Name/Synonymy Publication Info

Sphenopholis filiformis (Chapman) Scribner, Rhodora 8:144 (1906). Eatonia pensylvanica [as "pennsylvanica"] var. filiformis Chapman, Fl. South. U.S. 560 (1860); Eatonia filiformis (Chapman) Vasey, Bot. Gaz. 11:117 (1886); Reboulea filiformis (Chapman) Farw., Rep. (Annual) Michigan Acad. Sci. 17:182 (1916). TYPE: U.S.A., Florida; A.W. Chapman.

Eatonia hybrida Vasey ex Beal, Grasses N. Amer. 2:491 (1896). TYPE: U.S.A., Virginia: Alexandria; G. Vasey.

Eatonia aristata Scribner & Merr., Circ. Div. Agrostol. U.S.D.A. 272:7 (1900); Trisetum aristatum (Scribner & Merr.) Nash in Small, Fl. s.e. U.S. 130 (1903); Sphenopholis aristata (Scribner & Merr.) A. Heller, Muhlenbergia 6:12 (1910). HOL: US 72665; U.S.A., South Carolina; 1875; A.H. Curtiss.

Treatment From

T.F. Daniel. Sphenopholis in Flora of North America, volume 24. In prep. Oxford University Press.

Vegetative Morphology