Eragrostis airoides
Eragrostis gangetica
darnel lovegrass
slimflower lovegrass
30-110 cm, erect, glabrous below the nodes.
(12)25-75 cm, usually erect, sometimes geniculate and branched below, glabrous, reddish.
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.
glabrous, apices usually with 0.3-2.2 mm hairs;
ligules 0.2-0.4 mm, ciliate;
blades (5)7-17 cm long, 1-3 mm wide, flat to folded basally, involute apically, abaxial surfaces glabrous, adaxial surfaces scabridulous, sometimes with scattered hairs near the base.
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.
(6)11-21 cm long, 1-13 cm wide, ovate to somewhat contracted, open;
primary branches 0.5-12 cm, (12)15-20 per culm, appressed or diverging up to 60° from the rachises, often capillary, naked near the base;
pulvini glabrous;
pedicels 0.3-5 mm, mostly appressed.
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.
2-4.6 mm long, 0.9-2 mm wide, narrowly ovate, greenish-yellow to plumbeous and with a reddish-purple tinge, with 5-15 florets;
disarticulation acropetal, paleas persistent.
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.
lanceolate to ovate, membranous;
lower glumes 0.4-0.9 mm;
upper glumes 1-1.3 mm, occasionally 3-veined;
lemmas 1-1.3 mm, broadly ovate, membranous, often reddish-purple, lateral veins conspicuous, often greenish, apices acute;
paleas 0.9-1.1 mm, hyaline, keels scabridulous, apices obtuse;
anthers 2, 0.1-0.2 mm, reddish-purple.
0.4-0.5 mm, ovoid, reticulate, reddish-brown.
0.3-0.5 mm, subglobose to obovoid, not grooved, translucent, faintly striate, reddish-brown.
.).
= 36 (Davidse, pers.
= 80.
Eragrostis airoides
Eragrostis gangetica
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 gangetica is an Asian species that now grows in the southeastern United States. It can be found in the sandy margins of ponds, roadsides, and ditches, at 0-100 m, usually in association with Pinus, Taxodium distichum, Rynchospora, and Steinchisma hians. Eragrostis gangetica is similar to E. bahiensis, but differs from that species in its annual habit and shorter spikelets, lemmas, anthers, and caryopses.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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