Eragrostis ciliaris |
Eragrostis ciliaris var. laxa |
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gophertail lovegrass |
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Habit | Plants annual; tufted, without innovations, without glands. | |||||
Culms | (3)9-75 cm, erect or geniculate in the lower portion, not rooting at the lower nodes, glabrous. |
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Sheaths | hairy on the margins and at the apices, hairs to 4 mm; ligules 0.2-0.5 mm; blades 1.8-12(15) cm long, 2-5 mm wide, usually flat, occasionally involute, glabrous or ciliate basally. |
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Panicles | 1.7-15 cm long, 0.2-5 cm wide, cylindrical, contracted or open, branches usually forming glomerate lobes, sometimes more open, often interrupted in the lower portion; primary branches 0.4-4 cm, appressed or diverging to 50° from the rachises; pulvini usually glabrous, occasionally sparsely pilose; pedicels 0.1-1 mm, erect, shorter than the spikelets, glabrous. |
1.5-5 cm wide, open; branches spreading 20-50° from the rachises. |
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Spikelets | 1.8-3.2 mm long, 1-2 mm wide, elliptical-ovate to ovate-lanceolate, yellowish-brown, sometimes with a purple tinge, with 6-11 florets; disarticulation basipetal, glumes peristent. |
widely separated from each other. |
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Glumes | ovate to lanceolate, keels scabridulous, veins commonly green, apices acute; lower glumes 0.7-1.2 mm; upper glumes 1-1.6 mm; lemmas 0.8-1.3 mm, elliptical-ovate to lanceolate, membranous, keels scabridulous, lateral veins evident, apices obtuse to acute; paleas 0.8-1.3 mm, membranous, keels prominently ciliate, cilia 0.2-0.8 mm, apices obtuse to acute; anthers 2, 0.1-0.3 mm, purplish. |
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Caryopses | 0.4-0.5 mm, ovoid, reddish-brown. |
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2n | = 20, 40. |
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Eragrostis ciliaris |
Eragrostis ciliaris var. laxa |
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Distribution |
AL; FL; GA; LA; MS; NJ; SC; TX; HI; PR; Virgin Islands
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Discussion | Eragrostis ciliaris is native to the paleotropics. It is naturalized in parts of the United States, growing along roadsides, on waste sites, in xerothermic vegetation, and sometimes in saline habitats, at 0-200 m. It may be more widespread than indicated. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Eragrostis ciliaris var. laxa grows in five counties of Florida, the Caribbean Islands, and the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 71. | FNA vol. 25, p. 71. | ||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis > Eragrostis ciliaris | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Name authority | (L.) R. Br. | Kuntze | ||||
Web links |