Eragrostis airoides |
Eragrostis sessilispica |
|
---|---|---|
darnel lovegrass |
tumble 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. |
30-90 cm, erect or decumbent, 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. |
hairy at the apices and on the collars, sometimes also on the distal portion of the margins, hairs to 5 mm; ligules 0.4-0.5 mm; blades 5-30 cm long, 1-3 mm wide, usually involute, sometimes flat, abaxial surfaces glabrous or sparsely pilose, hairs to 5 mm, adaxial surfaces scabridulous. |
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. |
20-65 cm long, 10-35 cm wide, ovate, open; primary branches 2-20(24) cm, widely spaced, diverging 20-100° from the rachises, not rebranched, naked basally; pulvini hairy; pedicels 0-12 mm, appressed, proximal spikelets on each branch sessile or subsessile, the pedicels shorter than 0.4 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. |
5-13 mm long, 1.4-3 mm wide, oblong to oblanceolate, stramineous to reddish-purple, with 3-12 florets; disarticulation tardy, basipetal, in the rachilla 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. |
lanceolate, broad basally, indurate; lower glumes 2.5-6 mm; upper glumes 3-6 mm, apices acuminate; lemmas 3-5 mm, narrowly ovate to lanceolate, indurate, apices acuminate; paleas 2.4-4.6 mm, indurate, gibbous basally but the sides not projecting beyond the lemmas, keels ciliolate, apices obtuse; anthers 3, 0.3-0.5 mm, reddish-brown. |
Caryopses | 0.4-0.5 mm, ovoid, reticulate, reddish-brown. |
0.9-1.5 mm, ovoid to pyriform, laterally flattened, tapering distally, smooth to faintly striate, brownish. |
Comm | .). |
|
2n | = 36 (Davidse, pers. |
= 40. |
Eragrostis airoides |
Eragrostis sessilispica |
|
Distribution |
TX |
KS; NM; OK; TX |
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 sessilispica grows in prairies, limestone mesas, partial forest openings, and grasslands, generally in sandy soils, at 0-1220 m, often in association with Prosopsis and Quercus. Its range extends into northern Mexico. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 103. | FNA vol. 25, p. 103. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | Nees | Buckley |
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