Eragrostis airoides |
Eragrostis refracta |
|
---|---|---|
darnel lovegrass |
coastal 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. |
30-85(110) cm, glabrous and shiny 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 6 mm; ligules 0.1-0.4 mm; blades 10-35 cm long, 2-5 mm wide, flat to involute, glabrous abaxially, scabridulous and sparsely pilose adaxially, hairs to 7 mm. |
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. |
(25)30-60 cm long, 25-40 cm wide, broadly ovate to obovate, open, diffuse; primary branches 5-25 cm, diverging 20-90° from the rachises, capillary; pulvini hairy or glabrous; pedicels 0.5-25 mm, appressed, only the terminal pedicels on each branch longer 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. |
4-18(23) mm long, 1.4-3.4 mm wide, linear-lanceolate, grayish-green or stramineous to purplish, with (4)9-30 florets; disarticulation tardy, basipetal, in the rachillas below the florets, 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. |
narrowly lanceolate, membranous; lower glumes 0.8-2.4 mm; upper glumes 1.5-2.6 mm; lemmas 1.4-2.8 mm, lanceolate, membranous, apices acute to acuminate; paleas 1-2.6 mm, hyaline to membranous, narrower than the lemmas, apices obtuse to acute; anthers 2, 0.3-0.5 mm, purplish or brownish. |
Caryopses | 0.4-0.5 mm, ovoid, reticulate, reddish-brown. |
0.5-0.9 mm, ovoid to ellipsoid, finely striate, reddish-brown. |
Comm | .). |
|
2n | = 36 (Davidse, pers. |
= 28. |
Eragrostis airoides |
Eragrostis refracta |
|
Distribution |
TX |
AL; AR; DE; FL; GA; LA; MD; MO; MS; NC; NJ; OK; SC; TX; VA
|
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 refracta grows in sandy pinelands, savannahs, marshes, and woodlands on the coastal plain of the southeastern United States, at 0-150 m. It is not known from Mexico. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 103. | FNA vol. 25, p. 97. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | E. virginica, E. campestris | |
Name authority | Nees | (Muhl.) Scribn. |
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