Eragrostis airoides |
Kalinia obtusiflora(synonym of Eragrostis obtusiflora) |
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darnel lovegrass |
alkali lovegrass |
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Habit | Plants perennial; cespitose, with innovations, without rhizomes, not glandular. | Plants perennial; rhizomatous, sometimes also stoloniferous, with many innovations and scaly, sharp-tipped rhizomes 4-8 mm thick. |
Culms | 30-110 cm, erect, glabrous below the nodes. |
15-40(50) cm, erect, stiff, hard. |
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 at the apices, hairs to 2 mm; ligules 0.2-0.4 mm, membranous, ciliate; blades 2-15 cm long, (1)2-4 mm wide, involute, arcuate, glabrous abaxially, scabrous adaxially, apices sharply pointed. |
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. |
terminal, 6-20(24) cm long, 2-8(12) cm wide, ovate, open or contracted; primary branches 1-8(15) cm, appressed or diverging up to 50° from the rachises; pulvini glabrous or not; pedicels 0-8 mm, appressed, lower pedicels on each branch shorter than 1 mm. |
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. |
8-14 mm long, 1.4-3 mm wide, ovate to lanceolate, stramineous with a reddish-purple tinge, with 5-10 florets; disarticulation basipetal, glumes persistent. |
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. |
unequal, chartaceous; lower glumes 2.4-3.6 mm; upper glumes 3-4.5 mm, sometimes 3-veined; lemmas 3.8-4.5 mm, ovate, leathery, 3(4, 5)-veined, lateral veins evident, greenish, upper margins hyaline, apices acute to obtuse, usually erose; paleas 3.8-4.5 mm, membranous, keels scabridulous, apices obtuse to truncate; anthers 3, 2-2.4 mm, purplish to yellowish. |
Caryopses | 0.4-0.5 mm, ovoid, reticulate, reddish-brown. |
1.6-2 mm, ellipsoid, dorsally flattened, with a shallow adaxial groove, striate, reddish-brown. |
Comm | .). |
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2n | = 36 (Davidse, pers. |
= 40. |
Eragrostis airoides |
Kalinia obtusiflora |
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Distribution |
TX |
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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 obtusiflora is native to the southwestern United States and Mexico. It grows in dry or wet alkali flats, often in association with Distichlis and Sarcobatus, at 900-1400 m. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 103. | FNA vol. 25, p. 89. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | Nees | (E. Fourn.) Scribn. |
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