Eragrostis airoides |
Eragrostis prolifera |
|
---|---|---|
darnel lovegrass |
Dominican lovegrass |
|
Habit | Plants perennial; cespitose, with innovations, without rhizomes, not glandular. | Plants perennial; cespitose, with innovations, without rhizomes, not glandular. |
Culms | 30-110 cm, erect, glabrous below the nodes. |
85-130(150) cm, stiffly erect, 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. |
glabrous or hairy at the apices, hairs to 4 mm; ligules 0.1-0.2 mm; blades 25-50 cm long, 1.5-6 mm wide, flat to involute, glabrous abaxially, scabridulous adaxially, sometimes also with a few scattered hairs near the base. |
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. |
(10)20-50(60) cm long, 2-8(10) cm wide, narrowly ovate, contracted to open; primary branches mostly 2-14 cm, appressed or diverging up to 50°(90°) from the rachises, spikelets congested near the base of the branches; pulvini glabrous; pedicels 0.3-2.4 mm, appressed, always shorter than the spikelets. |
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. |
3.2-10(12) mm long, 0.7-1.4 mm wide, linear-lanceolate, stramineous to plumbeous, sometimes with a reddish tinge, with (5)8-25 florets; disarticulation acropetal, glumes first, then the lemmas, paleas 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. |
subequal, ovate to lanceolate, hyaline; lower glumes 1-1.5 mm; upper glumes 1.1-1.6 mm; lemmas 1.1-1.8(2) mm, ovate, membranous, apices acute; paleas 0.8-1.7 mm, hyaline, narrower than the lemmas, apices obtuse to truncate; anthers 2, 0.2-0.3 mm, purplish. |
Caryopses | 0.4-0.5 mm, ovoid, reticulate, reddish-brown. |
0.6-0.9 mm, ovoid, flattened ventrally, finely striate, reddish-brown. |
Comm | .). |
|
2n | = 36 (Davidse, pers. |
= 40. |
Eragrostis airoides |
Eragrostis prolifera |
|
Distribution |
TX |
FL |
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 prolifera grows on beaches, in brackish water, and along roadsides, at elevations below 5 m in Florida. Its range extends southward from Florida through Mexico and Central America to Colombia. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 103. | FNA vol. 25, p. 99. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | Nees | (Sw.) Steud. |
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