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weeping love grass

eragrostide faux-paturin, lesser love grass, little love grass

Habit Plants perennial; cespitose, forming innovations at the basal nodes, without glands. Plants annual; tufted, without innovations.
Culms

(45)60-150 cm, erect, glabrous or glandular.

10-45 cm, erect to decumbent, sometimes with a ring of glandular tissue below the nodes.

Sheaths

with scattered hairs, hairs to 9 mm;

ligules 0.6-1.3 mm;

blades 12-50(65) cm long, 1-3 mm wide, flat to involute, abaxial surfaces glabrous, sometimes scabridulous, adaxial surfaces with scattered hairs basally, hairs to 7 mm.

sometimes glandular on the midveins, hairy at the apices, hairs

Panicles

16-35(40) cm long, (4)8-24 cm wide, ovate to oblong, open;

primary branches 3-14 cm, diverging 10-80° from the rachises;

pulvini glabrous or not;

pedicels 0.5-5 mm, appressed, flexible.

4-20 cm long, 2.2-8(10) cm wide, ovate, open to contracted, rachises sometimes with glandular spots or pits below the nodes, rarely with a glandular ring, glands usually dull, greenish-gray to stramineous;

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

pulvini glabrous or hairy;

pedicels 1-4 mm, stiff, straight, divergent, usually with a distal ring of crateriform glands.

Spikelets

4-8.2(10) mm long, 1.2-2 mm wide, linear-lanceolate, plumbeous to yellowish, with 3-10 florets;

disarticulation irregular to acropetal, proximal rachilla segments persistent.

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

disarticulation acropetal, paleas persistent.

Glumes

lanceolate, hyaline;

lower glumes 1.2-2.6 mm;

upper glumes 2-3 mm;

lemmas 1.8-3 mm, ovate, membranous, lateral veins conspicuous, apices acute;

paleas 1.8-3 mm, hyaline to membranous, apices obtuse;

anthers 3, 0.6-1.2 mm, reddish-brown.

broadly ovate, membranous;

lower glumes 0.9-1.4 mm;

upper glumes 1.2-1.6 mm;

lemmas 1.4-1.8 mm, broadly ovate, membranous, keels occasionally with 1-2 crateriform glands, apices acute to obtuse;

paleas 1.3-1.7 mm, hyaline, keels smooth or scabridulous, scabridities to 0.1 mm, apices obtuse to acute;

anthers 2, 0.2-0.3 mm, reddish-brown.

Caryopses

1-1.7 mm, ellipsoid to obovoid, dorsally compressed, adaxial surfaces with a shallow, broad groove or ungrooved, smooth, mostly translucent, light brown, bases often greenish.

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

2n

= 40, 50.

= 40.

Eragrostis curvula

Eragrostis minor

Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; AZ; CA; CO; DE; FL; GA; IL; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; MO; MS; NC; NJ; NM; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; SC; TN; TX; UT; VA; WA; WV; HI; PR
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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; NE; NH; NJ; NV; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; BC; NB; NS; ON; PE; QC; SK
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[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Eragrostis curvula is native to southern Africa. It is often used for reclamation because it provides good ground cover but, once introduced, it easily escapes. In the Flora region, it grows on rocky slopes, at the margins of woods, along roadsides, and in waste ground, at 20-2400 m, usually in pine-oak woodlands, and yellow pine and mixed hardwood forests.

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

Eragrostis minor is a European species that now grows in gravelly roadsides and disturbed sites, especially near railroad yards, at 20-1600 m in southern Canada and the contiguous United States.

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

Source FNA vol. 25, p. 76. FNA vol. 25, p. 85.
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. cilianensis, E. ciliaris, E. cumingii, E. curtipedicellata, 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. 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. curvula var. conferta, E. chloromelas E. poaeoides
Name authority (Schrad.) Nees Host
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