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darnel lovegrass

Chinese lovegrass

Habit Plants perennial; cespitose, with innovations, without rhizomes, not glandular. Plants annual; tufted, without innovations, without glands.
Culms

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

10-50 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.

Leaves

mostly basal;

sheaths mostly glabrous, apices pilose, hairs 0.4-3 mm;

ligules 0.1-0.2 mm, ciliate;

blades (1.8)5-12 cm long, 2-6 mm wide, flat to involute, abaxial surfaces glabrous, adaxial surfaces scabridulous and glabrous or sparsely hairy, hairs appressed.

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.

6-15 cm long, 0.5-7 cm wide, ovate, open to contracted;

primary branches 0.2-5 cm, appressed or diverging up to 70° from the rachises, glabrous;

pulvini glabrous;

pedicels 2-8 mm, glabrous.

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.

4-8(10) mm long, (1.6)2-4 mm wide, ovate-lanceolate, loosely imbricate, straw-colored to purplish, with 12-42 florets;

disarticulation acropetal, paleas not persistent, rachillas 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.

ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, hyaline to membranous;

lower glumes 1-1.8 mm;

upper glumes 1-2.2 mm;

lemmas 1.5-1.9 mm, broadly ovate, membranous, lateral veins raised, apices obtuse to acute;

paleas 1.4-1.9 mm, hyaline, keels scabridulous, apices acute to obtuse;

anthers 2, 0.2-0.4 mm, purplish.

Caryopses

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

0.6-0.9 mm, ellipsoid, laterally compressed, not grooved, smooth, light brown.

Comm

.).

2n

= 36 (Davidse, pers.

= 20, ca. 30.

Eragrostis airoides

Eragrostis unioloides

Distribution
from FNA
TX
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
FL; GA; MD; HI
[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 unioloides is an Asian species that is now established in the southeastern United States, growing along roadsides and in disturbed ground, at 20-150 m.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 25, p. 103. FNA vol. 25, p. 85.
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. spicata, E. superba, E. swallenii, E. tef, E. trichodes, E. trichophora
Name authority Nees (Retz.) Nees ex Steud.
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