Eragrostis airoides |
Eragrostis scaligera |
|
---|---|---|
darnel lovegrass |
tender 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. |
25-75 cm, 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 with hairy apices, hairs to 4 mm; ligules 0.1-0.3 mm, ciliate; blades 4-8(18) cm long, 1-2 mm wide, involute, frequently deciduous, adaxial surfaces mostly glabrous, sometimes pilose 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. |
terminal and axillary; terminal panicles 5-15 cm long, (1)2-10(12) cm wide, narrowly ovate, open; axillary panicles 2-5 cm long, 0.3-0.6 cm wide, usually contracted and partially to completely enclosed by the subtending sheath; primary branches 1-10 cm, appressed or diverging up to 90° from the rachises, wiry; pulvini glabrous or hairy; pedicels 0.3-5 mm, appressed, 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. |
6-15(27) mm long, 1.6-2.4 mm wide, ovate-lanceolate, plumbeous to greenish, often with a reddish-purple tinge, with 10-35(45) 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. |
lanceolate to ovate, membranous; lower glumes 1.4-2.1 mm; upper glumes 1.6-2.2 mm; lemmas (1.7)2-2.5 mm, broadly ovate, leathery, apices acute to acuminate; paleas 1.1-1.7 mm, hyaline, apices obtuse to truncate; anthers 2, 0.3-0.7 mm, reddish-purple. |
Caryopses | 0.4-0.5 mm, ovoid, reticulate, reddish-brown. |
0.5-0.6 mm, globose, not grooved, smooth, light reddish-brown. |
Comm | .). |
|
2n | = 36 (Davidse, pers. |
= 40. |
Eragrostis airoides |
Eragrostis scaligera |
|
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 scaligera is known from Lee and Collier counties, Florida, where it grows in sandy areas in the coastal scrub zone and along adjacent roadsides, at 0-10 m. It is native to French Guiana and Brazil. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 103. | FNA vol. 25, p. 101. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | Nees | Salzm. ex Steud. |
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