Eragrostis curvula
Eragrostis spectabilis
weeping love grass
eragrostide brillante, purple love grass
(45)60-150 cm, erect, glabrous or glandular.
30-70(85) cm, erect, glabrous.
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.
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.
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.
(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.
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.
3-7.5 mm long, 1-2 mm wide, linear-lanceolate, reddish-purple, sometimes olivaceous, with (4)6-12 florets;
disarticulation basipetal, glumes persistent.
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.
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.
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.
0.6-0.8 mm, ellipsoid, strongly flattened, adaxial surfaces with 2 prominent ridges separated by a groove, reddish-brown.
= 40, 50.
= 20, 40, 42.
Eragrostis curvula
Eragrostis spectabilis
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 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.)
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