Eragrostis airoides |
Eragrostis ciliaris |
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darnel lovegrass |
gophertail lovegrass |
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Habit | Plants perennial; cespitose, with innovations, without rhizomes, not glandular. | Plants annual; tufted, without innovations, without glands. | ||||
Culms | 30-110 cm, erect, glabrous below the nodes. |
(3)9-75 cm, erect or geniculate in the lower portion, not rooting at the lower nodes, glabrous. |
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Sheaths | glabrous or pilose, hairs to 5 mm; ligules 0.1-0.2 mm; blades 8-22 mm long, (1)2-4(5) mm wide, flat to folded, glabrous abaxially, scabridulous adaxially. |
hairy on the margins and at the apices, hairs to 4 mm; ligules 0.2-0.5 mm; blades 1.8-12(15) cm long, 2-5 mm wide, usually flat, occasionally involute, glabrous or ciliate basally. |
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Panicles | 18-70 cm long, 3-25 cm wide, diffuse, ovate; primary branches 4-20 cm, appressed or diverging 10-70° from the rachises, naked basally; pulvini glabrous; pedicels 2.4-11 mm, divergent. |
1.7-15 cm long, 0.2-5 cm wide, cylindrical, contracted or open, branches usually forming glomerate lobes, sometimes more open, often interrupted in the lower portion; primary branches 0.4-4 cm, appressed or diverging to 50° from the rachises; pulvini usually glabrous, occasionally sparsely pilose; pedicels 0.1-1 mm, erect, shorter than the spikelets, glabrous. |
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Spikelets | 1.3-2 mm long, 0.8-1.8 mm wide, ovate to lanceolate, plumbeous, with 1-3 florets; disarticulation acropetal, in the rachilla below the florets, glumes deciduous; rachilla prolonged above the terminal floret. |
1.8-3.2 mm long, 1-2 mm wide, elliptical-ovate to ovate-lanceolate, yellowish-brown, sometimes with a purple tinge, with 6-11 florets; disarticulation basipetal, glumes peristent. |
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Glumes | lanceolate to ovate, membranous; lower glumes 0.8-1 mm; upper glumes 1.1-1.4 mm; lemmas 0.8-1.2 mm, ovate, membranous, plumbeous, keels and lateral veins inconspicuous, apices obtuse; paleas 0.8-1.2 mm, membranous, bases not projecting beyond the lemmas, apices obtuse; anthers 3, 0.3-0.5 mm, purplish. |
ovate to lanceolate, keels scabridulous, veins commonly green, apices acute; lower glumes 0.7-1.2 mm; upper glumes 1-1.6 mm; lemmas 0.8-1.3 mm, elliptical-ovate to lanceolate, membranous, keels scabridulous, lateral veins evident, apices obtuse to acute; paleas 0.8-1.3 mm, membranous, keels prominently ciliate, cilia 0.2-0.8 mm, apices obtuse to acute; anthers 2, 0.1-0.3 mm, purplish. |
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Caryopses | 0.4-0.5 mm, ovoid, reticulate, reddish-brown. |
0.4-0.5 mm, ovoid, reddish-brown. |
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Comm | .). |
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2n | = 36 (Davidse, pers. |
= 20, 40. |
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Eragrostis airoides |
Eragrostis ciliaris |
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Distribution |
TX |
AL; FL; GA; LA; MS; NJ; SC; TX; HI; PR; Virgin Islands
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Discussion | Eragrostis airoides is a South American species that, in the Flora region, is known only from roadsides and disturbed sites in Brazos County, Texas. It is an enigmatic species, often treated as Sporobolus brasiliensis (Raddi) Hack., which it resembles in its chromosome base number of x = 9 and caryopsis morphology, but its frequent possession of spikelets with more than 1 floret and its mode of spikelet disarticulation argue for its retention in Eragrostis. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Eragrostis ciliaris is native to the paleotropics. It is naturalized in parts of the United States, growing along roadsides, on waste sites, in xerothermic vegetation, and sometimes in saline habitats, at 0-200 m. It may be more widespread than indicated. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 103. | FNA vol. 25, p. 71. | ||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Name authority | Nees | (L.) R. Br. | ||||
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