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Mediterranean love grass

creeping love grass, teal love grass, teel lovegrass, éragrostide hypnoide

Habit Plants annual; tufted, without innovations. Plants annual; stoloniferous, mat-forming, without innovations, without glands.
Culms

(5)10-60 cm, erect or decumbent, much-branched near the base, with a ring of glandular tissue below the nodes, rings often shiny or yellowish.

decumbent and rooting at the lower nodes, erect portion (2)5-12(20) cm, often branched, glabrous or hairy on the lower internodes.

Sheaths

hairy at the apices, hairs to 4 mm;

ligules 0.2-0.5 mm, ciliate;

blades 1.5-10 cm long, 1-3(5) mm wide, flat, abaxial surfaces glabrous, adaxial surfaces glabrous, sometimes scabridulous, occasionally with white hairs to 3 mm, margins without crateriform glands.

pilose on the margins, collars, and at the apices, hairs 0.1-0.6 mm;

ligules 0.3-0.6 mm;

blades 0.5-2.5 cm long, 1-2 mm wide, flat to involute, abaxial surfaces glabrous, adaxial surfaces appressed pubescent, hairs about 0.2 mm.

Panicles

4-20 cm long, 2.2-8(10) cm wide, ovate, open to contracted, rachises with shiny or yellowish glandular spots or rings below the nodes;

primary branches 0.5-6 cm, diverging 20-100° from the rachises;

pulvini glabrous;

pedicels 1-4 mm, stout, stiff, divergent, without glandular bands.

terminal and axillary, 1-3.5 cm long, 0.7-2.5 cm wide, ovate, open to somewhat congested;

primary branches 0.1-0.5 cm, appressed to strongly divergent, glabrous;

pulvini sparsely pilose or glabrous;

pedicels 0.2-1 mm, ciliate.

Spikelets

4-7(11) mm long, 1.1-2.2 mm wide, narrowly ovate, reddish-purple to greenish, occasionally grayish, with 7-12(20) florets;

disarticulation acropetal, paleas persistent.

4-13 mm long, 1-1.5 mm wide, linear-oblong, often arcuate, loosely imbricate, greenish-yellow to purplish, with 12-35 florets;

disarticulation acropetal, paleas persistent.

Glumes

broadly ovate, membranous, 1-veined;

lower glumes 0.9-1.4 mm;

upper glumes 1.2-1.6 mm;

lemmas 1.4-1.8 mm, broadly ovate, membranous, apices acute to obtuse;

paleas 1.3-1.7 mm, hyaline, keels scabrous, scabridities to 0.1 mm, apices obtuse to acute;

anthers 3, 0.1-0.2 mm, reddish-brown.

linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, hyaline;

lower glumes 0.4-0.7 mm;

upper glumes 0.8-1.2 mm;

lemmas 1.4-2 mm, ovate, strongly 3-veined, veins greenish, apices acuminate;

paleas 0.7-1.2 mm, hyaline, keels scabridulous, apices acute to obtuse;

anthers 2, 0.2-0.3 mm, brownish.

Caryopses

0.4-0.7 mm, ellipsoid, not grooved, smooth to faintly striate, light brown.

0.3-0.5 mm, ellipsoid, somewhat translucent, light brown.

2n

= 40.

= 20.

Eragrostis barrelieri

Eragrostis hypnoides

Distribution
from FNA
AL; AZ; CA; CO; FL; KS; LA; MA; MD; MO; NE; NM; NV; OK; SC; TN; TX; UT; PR; Virgin Islands
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AL; AR; CA; CO; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; SC; SD; TN; TX; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; PR; MB; ON; QC; SK
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Eragrostis barrelieri is a European species that is now naturalized in the Flora region, primarily in the south-western United States. It grows on gravelly roadsides, in gardens, and other disturbed, sandy sites, especially near railroad yards, at 10-2000 m. The ring of glandular tissue is most conspicuous below the upper cauline nodes.

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

Eragrostis hypnoides grows along muddy or sandy shores of lakes and rivers and in moist, disturbed sites, at 10-1600 m. It is native to the Americas, extending from southern Canada to Argentina.

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

Source FNA vol. 25, p. 83. FNA vol. 25, p. 72.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis
Sibling taxa
E. airoides, E. amabilis, E. atrovirens, E. bahiensis, 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. 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
Synonyms E. weigeltiana
Name authority Daveau (Lam.) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb.
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