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stink grass, stinking lovegrass, éragrostide fétide

mourning lovegrass

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

15-45(65) cm, erect or decumbent, sometimes with crateriform glands below the nodes.

30-70 cm, erect, sometimes geniculate, glabrous below the nodes.

Sheaths

glabrous, occasionally glandular, apices hairy, hairs to 5 mm;

ligules 0.4-0.8 mm, ciliate;

blades (1)5-20 cm long, (1)3-5(10) mm wide, flat to involute, abaxial surfaces glabrous, sometimes glandular, adaxial surfaces scabridulous, occasionally also hairy.

usually mostly glabrous, summits hairy, hairs 2-5 mm, never papillose-based;

ligules 0.2-0.3 mm;

blades (4)8-22 cm long, 1-3.5 mm wide, involute to flat, both surfaces glabrous, margins sometimes with scattered hairs, hairs to 7 mm.

Panicles

(3)5-16(20) cm long, 2-8.5 cm wide, oblong to ovate, condensed to open;

primary branches 0.4-5 cm, appressed or diverging 20-80° from the rachises;

pulvini glabrous or hairy;

pedicels 0.2-3 mm, stout, straight, stiff, usually divergent, occasionally appressed.

16-28 cm long, 10-21 cm wide, ovate, open;

primary branches 0.6-15 cm, diverging up to 100° from the rachises, naked basally;

pulvini hairy;

pedicels 1.4-5(7) mm, diverging, wiry, present on all spikelets.

Spikelets

6-20 mm long, 2-4 mm wide, ovate-lanceolate, plumbeous, greenish, with 10-40 florets;

disarticulation below the florets, each floret falling as a unit, rachillas persistent.

2-4.5(5) mm long, 0.5-1(1.3) mm wide, narrowly lanceolate, plumbeous to reddish-purple, with 2-7 florets;

disarticulation acropetal, paleas persistent.

Glumes

broadly ovate to lanceolate, membranous, usually glandular;

lower glumes 1.2-2 mm, usually 1-veined;

upper glumes 1.2-2.6 mm, often 3-veined;

lemmas 2-2.8 mm, broadly ovate, membranous, keels with 1-3 crateriform glands, apices obtuse to acute;

paleas 1.2-2.1 mm, hyaline, keels scabrous, sometimes also ciliate, cilia to 0.3 mm, apices obtuse to acute;

anthers 3, 0.2-0.5 mm, yellow.

broadly ovate to narrowly lanceolate, hyaline, sometimes reddish-purple;

lower glumes 0.6-1 mm;

upper glumes 1.1-1.4 mm, usually broader than the lower glumes;

lemmas 1.2-1.8 mm, broadly ovate, mostly membranous but the distal margins hyaline, lateral veins inconspicuous, apices acute;

paleas 1.1-1.7 mm, membranous to hyaline, apices obtuse;

anthers 3, 0.2-0.7 mm, reddish-purple.

Caryopses

0.5-0.7 mm, globose to broadly ellipsoid, smooth to faintly striate, not grooved, reddish-brown or translucent.

0.5-0.6 mm, obovoid to somewhat prism-shaped, terete to somewhat laterally compressed, sometimes with a weak adaxial groove, finely striate, usually opaque, faintly reddish-brown to whitish.

2n

= 20.

= 40, 80, ca. 108.

Eragrostis cilianensis

Eragrostis lugens

Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; AZ; 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; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; HI; AB; BC; MB; NS; ON; QC; SK
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AL; AR; FL; GA; LA; MO; MS; NC; OK; SC; TN; TX
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Eragrostis cilianensis is an introduced European species that now grows in disturbed sites such as pastures and roadsides, at 0-2300 m, through most of the contiguous United States and southern Canada. The English name refers to the odor of fresh plants.

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

Eragrostis lugens grows on sandy dunes and along river banks, at 1-300 m. Its range extends from the southern United States to Peru and Argentina.

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

Source FNA vol. 25, p. 83. FNA vol. 25, p. 95.
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. barrelieri, E. capillaris, 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. 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. megastachya, E. major
Name authority (All.) Vignolo ex Janch Nees
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