Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Eragrostis airoides

Eragrostis spicata

darnel lovegrass

spike lovegrass
Habit Plants perennial; cespitose, with innovations, without rhizomes, not glandular. Plants perennial; cespitose, with innovations, without rhizomes.
Culms

30-110 cm, erect, glabrous below the nodes.

75-100 cm, erect, glabrous.
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.

hirtellous on the margins when immature, apices glabrous or hairy shorter than 0.5 mm;

ligules 0.2-0.3 mm;

blades 20-40 cm long, 2-5(6) mm wide, flat to involute, glabrous abaxially, scabrous adaxially.
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.

22-40 cm long, 0.3-0.6 cm wide, spikelike, dense;

primary branches shorter than 1.2 cm, closely appressed, spikelet-bearing to the base;

pulvini glabrous;

pedicels 0.1-0.6 mm, mostly appressed, hirtellous.
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.

1.4-2.2 mm long, 0.9-1.2 mm wide, ovate, stramineous to light greenish, with 2-3 florets;

disarticulation basipetal, in the rachilla below the individual florets or at the base of 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.

elliptic to ovate, hyaline, keels ciliolate;

lower glumes 0.7-1 mm;

upper glumes 0.9-1.3 mm, apices obtuse;

lemmas 1.5-2.1 mm, ovate, membranous to hyaline, apices acute to obtuse;

paleas 1.1-1.6 mm, hyaline, not wider than the lemmas, apices obtuse;

anthers 2, 0.3-0.4 mm, reddish-brown.
Caryopses

0.4-0.5 mm, ovoid, reticulate, reddish-brown.

0.7-1 mm, ellipsoid, somewhat ventrally flattened, smooth to faintly striate, reddish-brown.
Comm

.).

2n

= 36 (Davidse, pers.

= 40.

Eragrostis airoides

Eragrostis spicata
Distribution
from FNA
TX
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
TX
[BONAP county map]
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 spicata grows in moist areas in prairies, usually in deep, sandy, clay loam soils, at 0-70 m. It is native from southern Texas to Mexico and in Paraguay and Argentina. In North America, it grows with Andropogon, Quercus stellata, Prosopsis glandulosa, and Acacia.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 25, p. 103. FNA vol. 25.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis
Sibling taxa
E. amabilis, E. atrovirens, E. bahiensis, E. barrelieri, E. capillaris, E. cilianensis, E. ciliaris, E. cumingii, E. curtipedicellata, E. curvula, E. cylindriflora, E. echinochloidea, E. elliottii, E. elongata, E. erosa, E. frankii, E. gangetica, E. hirsuta, E. hypnoides, E. intermedia, E. japonica, E. lehmanniana, E. lugens, E. lutescens, E. mexicana, E. minor, E. obtusiflora, E. palmeri, E. pectinacea, E. pilosa, E. plana, E. polytricha, E. prolifera, E. refracta, E. reptans, E. scaligera, E. secundiflora, E. sessilispica, E. setifolia, E. silveana, E. spectabilis, E. spicata, E. superba, E. swallenii, E. tef, E. trichodes, E. trichophora, E. unioloides
E. airoides, E. amabilis, E. atrovirens, E. bahiensis, E. barrelieri, E. capillaris, E. cilianensis, E. ciliaris, E. cumingii, E. curtipedicellata, E. curvula, E. cylindriflora, E. echinochloidea, E. elliottii, E. elongata, E. erosa, E. frankii, E. gangetica, E. hirsuta, E. hypnoides, E. intermedia, E. japonica, E. lehmanniana, E. lugens, E. lutescens, E. mexicana, E. minor, E. obtusiflora, E. palmeri, E. pectinacea, E. pilosa, E. plana, E. polytricha, E. prolifera, E. refracta, E. reptans, E. scaligera, E. secundiflora, E. sessilispica, E. setifolia, E. silveana, E. spectabilis, E. superba, E. swallenii, E. tef, E. trichodes, E. trichophora, E. unioloides
Name authority Nees Vasey
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers