Eragrostis barrelieri |
Eragrostis spectabilis |
|
---|---|---|
Mediterranean love grass |
eragrostide brillante, purple love grass |
|
Habit | Plants annual; tufted, without innovations. | Plants perennial; cespitose, with innovations and short, knotty rhizomes less than 4 mm thick. |
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. |
30-70(85) cm, erect, glabrous. |
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. |
hairy on the margins and at the apices, hairs to 7 mm; ligules 0.1-0.2 mm; blades 10-32 cm long, 3-8 mm wide, flat to involute, both surfaces usually pilose, sometimes glabrous on both surfaces or glabrous abaxially and sparsely pilose adaxially, often with a line of hairs behind the ligules, hairs to 8 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. |
(15)25-45(60) cm long, 15-35 cm wide, broadly ovate to oblong, open, basal portions sometimes included in the uppermost leaf sheaths; primary branches (6)12-20 cm long, diverging 20-90° from the rachises, capillary, naked below; pulvini hairy, hairs to 6 mm; pedicels 1.5-17 mm, divergent or appressed. |
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. |
3-7.5 mm long, 1-2 mm wide, linear-lanceolate, reddish-purple, sometimes olivaceous, with (4)6-12 florets; disarticulation basipetal, glumes 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. |
subequal to equal, (1)1.3-2.3 mm, lanceolate, membranous to chartaceous; lemmas (1)1.3-2.5 mm, ovate to lanceolate, leathery, 3-veined, apices acute; paleas (1)1.2-2.4 mm, membranous, keels sometimes shortly ciliate, apices obtuse to truncate; anthers 3, 0.3-0.5 mm, purplish. |
Caryopses | 0.4-0.7 mm, ellipsoid, not grooved, smooth to faintly striate, light brown. |
0.6-0.8 mm, ellipsoid, strongly flattened, adaxial surfaces with 2 prominent ridges separated by a groove, reddish-brown. |
2n | = 40. |
= 20, 40, 42. |
Eragrostis barrelieri |
Eragrostis spectabilis |
|
Distribution |
AL; AZ; CA; CO; FL; KS; LA; MA; MD; MO; NE; NM; NV; OK; SC; TN; TX; UT; PR; Virgin Islands
|
AL; AR; AZ; CO; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NY; OH; OK; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; VA; VT; WI; WV; WY; MB; ON; QC
|
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 spectabilis is native in the eastern portion of the Flora region, extending from southern Canada through the United States, Mexico, and Central America to Belize. It grows in fields and on the margins of woods, along roadsides, and in other disturbed sites, usually in sandy to clay loam soils, at 0-1830 m, and is associated with hardwood forests, Prosopsis-Acacia grasslands, and shortgrass prairies. A showy species, E. spectabilis is available commercially for planting as an ornamental. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 83. | FNA vol. 25, p. 89. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | E. spectabilis var. sparsihirsuta | |
Name authority | Daveau | (Pursh) Steud. |
Web links |