Eragrostis brownii (Kunth) Nees ex Steud., Poaceae

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Present on Pacific Islands?  yes

Primarily a threat at high elevations?  yes

Common name(s): [more details]

English: bay grass, Brown's love grass, sheepgrass

Palauan: ouemoket

Habit:  grass

Description:  "Spreading or occasionally narrow, light yellow-green, perennial tufts, 15-60-(70) cm, sometimes with prostrate culms; branching intravaginal. Leaf-sheath glabrous, rounded. Ligule ciliate, hairs 0.1-0.2 mm. Collar hairs to 3.5 mm. Leaf-blade 4-20 cm x 1-3.5 mm, usually flat, sometimes involute, abaxially smooth, sometimes scabrid above, adaxially finely ribbed and finely scabrid on ribs, sometimes with scattered long hairs near base; margins scabrid, tapered to filiform, acute tip. Culm 5-60 cm, internodes smooth. Panicle 3-30 cm, contracted to often very lax with delicate widespread branches, bearing clustered to well-spaced pedicelled spikelets; rachis smooth below, becoming scabrid above, branches and pedicels scabrid, branch-axils glabrous. Spikelets (3)-6-10 x 2-2.5 mm, (5)-7-16-flowered, glabrous, compressed, linear-lanceolate or narrow-oblong, grey-green, leaden green, or purplish. Glumes subequal or unequal, 1-nerved, submembranous, acute, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, keeled, scabrid on keel; lower 1.0-1.9 mm, subulate, upper 1.5-2.4 mm, lanceolate. Lemma 1.7-2.4 mm, 3-nerved with lateral nerves distinct, submembranous, ± opaque, ovate-lanceolate, smooth, but keel finely scabrid near subacute to obtuse apex. Palea < lemma, persistent, keels and truncate apex closely ciliate. Rachilla 0.3-0.4 mm, glabrous. Stamens 3; anthers 0.3-0.5 mm. Caryopsis 0.6-0.7 x 0.4-0.5 mm"  (Edgar & Connor, 2000; p. 526).

Description from GrassBase.

Habitat/ecology:  In Hawai‘i, "naturalized and common in pastures, wet grassland, and openings in wet forest, 1,130-2,000 m" (Wagner et al., p. 1541). In New Zealand, "waste ground, roadsides, modified grassland, sometimes in swampy ground or near hot springs" (Edgar & Connor, 2000; p. 526).

Propagation:  Seed

Native range:  Australia (GRIN).

Presence:

Pacific
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Australia (Pacific offshore islands) Norfolk Islands	Norfolk Island	probably introduced invasive cultivated	Orchard, Anthony E., ed. (1994) (p. 12) "It has possibly been introduced to the Island as a fodder plant". Voucher cited: F.C. Allen 113 (CHR)
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (US) Northern Mariana Islands	Rota Island	introduced	Fosberg, F. R./Sachet, Marie-Hélène/Oliver, Royce (1987) (p. 42)
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (US) Northern Mariana Islands	Rota Island	introduced	Raulerson, L. (2006) (p. 8)
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (US) Northern Mariana Islands	Saipan Island	introduced	Raulerson, L. (2006) (p. 8)
Guam Guam Island	Guam Island	introduced	Raulerson, L. (2006) (p. 8)
State of Hawaii Hawaiian Islands	Hawai‘i (Big) Island	introduced invasive	Wagner, Warren L./Herbst, Derral R./Sohmer, S. H. (1999) (pp. 1540-1541) Voucher cited: Hitchcock 14519 (BISH)
State of Hawaii Hawaiian Islands	Kaua‘i Island	introduced invasive	Lorence, David/Flynn, Tim (1999) (p. 5) Voucher cited: T. Flynn et al. 6169 (K, PTBG)
State of Hawaii Hawaiian Islands	Maui Island	introduced invasive	Wagner, Warren L./Herbst, Derral R./Sohmer, S. H. (1999) (pp. 1540-1541)
State of Hawaii Hawaiian Islands	Moloka‘i Island	introduced invasive	Wagner, Warren L./Herbst, Derral R./Sohmer, S. H. (1999) (pp. 1540-1541)
Japan (offshore islands) Bonin (Ogasawara) Islands	Bonin (Ogasawara) Islands		Kato, Hidetoshi (2007)
Palau Palau (main island group)	Babeldaob Island	introduced	Fosberg, F. R./Sachet, Marie-Hélène/Oliver, Royce (1987) (p. 42)
Palau Palau (main island group)	Babeldaob Island		Beleu National Museum (Republic of Palau. Koror.) (1981) (voucher ID: BNM 3051) Taxon name on voucher: Eragrostis brownii (Kunth) Nees

Pacific Rim
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Australia Australia (continental)	New South Wales	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2009)
Australia Australia (continental)	Queensland	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2009)
New Zealand New Zealand	New Zealand (country)	introduced invasive	Edgar, E./Connor, H. (2000) (p. 526)

Additional information:
Additional online information about Eragrostis brownii is available from the Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (HEAR).

Information about Eragrostis brownii as a weed (worldwide references) may be available from the Global Compendium of Weeds (GCW).

Taxonomic information about Eragrostis brownii may be available from the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN).

References:

Beleu National Museum (Republic of Palau. Koror.). 1981. Voucher specimen #BNM3051(Timberlake, J. 3051).

Edgar, E./Connor, H. 2000. Flora of New Zealand, vol. V: Gramineae. Manaaki Whenua Press. .

Fosberg, F. R./Sachet, Marie-Hélène/Oliver, Royce. 1987. A geographical checklist of the Micronesian monocotyledonae. Micronesica 20:1-126.

Kato, Hidetoshi. 2007. Herbarium records of Makino Herbarium, Tokyo Metropolitan University. Personal communication.

Lorence, David/Flynn, Tim. 1999. New naturalized plant records for the Hawaiian Islands. In: Evenhuis, Neal L. and Eldredge, Lucius G., eds. Records of the Hawaii Biological Survey for 1998. Part 2: Notes. Bishop Museum Occasional Papers. 59:3-6.

Orchard, Anthony E., ed. 1994. Flora of Australia. Vol. 49, Oceanic islands 1. Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra.

Raulerson, L. 2006. Checklist of Plants of the Mariana Islands. University of Guam Herbarium Contribution 40:1-69. .

Raulerson, L./Rinehart, A. F./Falanruw, M. C. 1996. A botanical reconnaissance of the proposed Compact-impact road alignment on Babeldaob Island, Republic of Palau. U. of Guam Herbarium Cont. No. 32. 78 pp.

U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. 2009. National Genetic Resources Program. Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Online searchable database.

Wagner, Warren L./Herbst, Derral R./Sohmer, S. H. 1999. Manual of the flowering plants of Hawaii. Revised edition. Bernice P. Bishop Museum special publication. University of Hawai‘i Press/Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu. 1919 pp. (two volumes).