Eragrostis airoides |
Eragrostis cumingii |
|
---|---|---|
darnel lovegrass |
Cuming's lovegrass |
|
Habit | Plants perennial; cespitose, with innovations, without rhizomes, not glandular. | Plants annual; cespitose, without innovations, without glands. |
Culms | 30-110 cm, erect, glabrous below the nodes. |
10-40(50) cm, erect to prostrate, sometimes geniculate, branching profusely from near the base, glabrous below the nodes. |
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. |
sparsely hairy at the apices, hairs to 2.5 mm; ligules 0.1-0.2 mm; blades 3-10(12) cm long, 1-3 mm wide, flat to involute, sparsely pilose on the basal 1/2, scabridulous distally. |
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. |
5-20 cm long, 2-8 cm wide, narrowly ovate, open, with 6-10 primary branches; primary branches 1-6 cm, widely spaced, axes trigonous, diverging to 90° from the rachises, densely spikelet-bearing to the base; pulvini sparsely pilose; pedicels 0.4-1(2) mm, stout, straight, flattened. |
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. |
5-12(18) mm long, 1.4-2.4 mm wide, linear-lanceolate, chartaceous, stramineous to greenish with reddish-purple tinges, with 12-42 florets; disarticulation acropetal. |
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. |
subequal in length, 1.2-1.9 mm, narrowly lanceolate to lanceolate, membranous; lower glumes narrower than the upper glumes; lemmas 1.3-2 mm, lanceolate to ovate, chartaceous, lateral veins conspicuous, greenish, apices acute; paleas 1-1.6 mm, hyaline, keels ciliate, cilia 0.1-0.2 mm, apices obtuse to acute; anthers 3, 0.1-0.2 mm, purplish. |
Caryopses | 0.4-0.5 mm, ovoid, reticulate, reddish-brown. |
0.4-0.6 mm, ovoid, laterally compressed, finely striate, light brown. |
Comm | .). |
|
2n | = 36 (Davidse, pers. |
= 40. |
Eragrostis airoides |
Eragrostis cumingii |
|
Distribution |
TX |
AL; FL; GA; NC; NJ; HI |
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 cumingii is native to southeast Asia and Australia. Within the Flora region, it has become established in Florida, growing in waste places and along roadsides in sandy or gravelly soils, at 0-150 m. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 103. | FNA vol. 25, p. 72. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | E. broumii | |
Name authority | Nees | Steud. |
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