Eragrostis frankii
Eragrostis minor
sandbar lovegrass, éragrostide de Frank
eragrostide faux-paturin, lesser love grass, little love grass
10-50 cm, erect to geniculate, glabrous, often with glandular pits below the nodes.
10-45 cm, erect to decumbent, sometimes with a ring of glandular tissue 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.
sometimes glandular on the midveins, hairy at the apices, hairs
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.
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.
(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.
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.
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.
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.
0.4-0.7 mm, ovoid to rectangular-prismatic, striate, reddish-brown, adaxial surfaces flat or shallowly grooved, distal 2/3 opaque.
0.4-0.7 mm, ellipsoid, not grooved, striate, light brown.
= 40, 80.
= 40.
Eragrostis frankii
Eragrostis minor
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 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.)
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