Eragrostis frankii
Eragrostis lutescens
sandbar lovegrass, éragrostide de Frank
six-weeks love grass
10-50 cm, erect to geniculate, glabrous, often with glandular pits below the nodes.
(2)6-25 cm, usually erect, sometimes decumbent, glabrous, with elliptical, yellowish, glandular pits below the nodes.
mostly glabrous, apices hirsute, hairs to 4 mm, often also with glandular pits;
ligules 0.2-0.5 mm, ciliate;
blades (2)4-10(21) cm long, 1-4 mm wide, flat to involute, glabrous abaxially, scabridu-lous adaxially.
with elliptical glandular pits, sparsely hairy at the throat, hairs to 2 mm;
ligules 0.2-0.5 mm, ciliate;
blades 2-12 cm long, 1-3 mm wide, flat to involute, abaxial surfaces scabridulous, bases with glandular pits.
4-20 cm long, less than 1/2 the height of the plants, 2-10(14) cm wide, narrowly elliptic, open;
primary branches 2-6 cm, compact, diverging 20-70° from the rachises, capillary, sometimes with glandular pits, naked basally;
pulvini glabrous;
pedicels 1.5-5 mm, divergent.
terminal, 4-10(15) cm long, 0.5-2 cm wide, narrowly elliptic, contracted, dense;
primary branches alternate, usually appressed, occasionally diverging to 30° from the rachises, rachises and branches with glandular pits;
pulvini glabrous;
pedicels 1.4-10 mm, appressed or divergent.
(1.7)2-4(5.6) mm long, 1-2(2.5) mm wide, broadly ovate to lanceolate, plumbeous to reddish-purple, with 3-6 florets;
disarticulation acropetal, paleas persistent.
3.6-7.5 mm long, 1.2-2 mm wide, narrowly ovate, light yellowish, occasionally mottled with reddish-purple, with 6-11(14) florets;
disarticulation acropetal, paleas persistent.
narrowly lanceolate to lanceolate, hyaline;
lower glumes 1-1.5 mm;
upper glumes 1-1.8 mm;
lemmas 1.1-1.6 mm, broadly ovate, membranous, lateral veins inconspicuous, apices acute;
paleas 1-1.5 mm, hyaline, keels scabridulous, apices obtuse;
anthers 2 or 3, 0.2-0.3 mm, purplish.
subequal, ovate to lanceolate, hyaline;
lower glumes (0.7)0.9-1.4 mm;
upper glumes 1.2-1.8 mm;
lemmas 1.5-2.2 mm, ovate, subhyaline, stramineous, veins greenish and conspicuous, apices acute;
paleas 1.2-2 mm, hyaline, keels scabridulous, apices obtuse;
anthers 3, 0.2-0.3 mm, purplish.
0.4-0.7 mm, ovoid to rectangular-prismatic, striate, reddish-brown, adaxial surfaces flat or shallowly grooved, distal 2/3 opaque.
0.5-0.8 mm, pyriform except slightly flattened adaxially, smooth, light brown.
= 40, 80.
= unknown.
Eragrostis frankii
Eragrostis lutescens
Eragrostis frankii is native in the central and eastern United States, but it has been found, as an introduction, in southern Ontario, and appears to be increasingly common in the northeastern United States. It grows in moist meadows, along streams and sand bars, in forest openings, and along roadsides, at 5-1500 m, usually in association with Pinus, Quercus, Acer, and Fagus grandiflora. The record from Santa Fe County, New Mexico, is based on a specimen collected by Fendler in 1847; there are no other collections from the state. Fendler's specimens seem to represent either an accidental introduction that did not become established or a labeling error.
Eragrostis frankii is similar to E. capillaris, but differs in its frequent possession of glandular pits, its flat or more shallowly grooved caryopses, shorter pedicels, and glabrous sheath margins, and in having panicles that are usually less than half as long as the culms.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Eragrostis lutescens grows on the sandy banks of streams and lakes and in moist alkaline flats of the western United States at 300-2000 m. It has not been reported from Mexico.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Go Botany
IL Wildflowers
KS Wildflowers
MD Biodiversity
MI Flora
MN Wildflowers
MO Plants- Local floras:
CA, 
OR, 
WA - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos,
Flora NW, 
PNW Herbaria 
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist (observations)
USDA Plants Database- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
- Google Image Search
