Eragrostis frankii |
Eragrostis obtusiflora |
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sandbar lovegrass, éragrostide de Frank |
alkali lovegrass |
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Habit | Plants annual; cespitose, without innovations. | Plants perennial; rhizomatous, sometimes also stoloniferous, with many innovations and scaly, sharp-tipped rhizomes 4-8 mm thick. |
Culms | 10-50 cm, erect to geniculate, glabrous, often with glandular pits below the nodes. |
15-40(50) cm, erect, stiff, hard. |
Sheaths | 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. |
hairy at the apices, hairs to 2 mm; ligules 0.2-0.4 mm, membranous, ciliate; blades 2-15 cm long, (1)2-4 mm wide, involute, arcuate, glabrous abaxially, scabrous adaxially, apices sharply pointed. |
Panicles | 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, 6-20(24) cm long, 2-8(12) cm wide, ovate, open or contracted; primary branches 1-8(15) cm, appressed or diverging up to 50° from the rachises; pulvini glabrous or not; pedicels 0-8 mm, appressed, lower pedicels on each branch shorter than 1 mm. |
Spikelets | (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. |
8-14 mm long, 1.4-3 mm wide, ovate to lanceolate, stramineous with a reddish-purple tinge, with 5-10 florets; disarticulation basipetal, glumes persistent. |
Glumes | 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. |
unequal, chartaceous; lower glumes 2.4-3.6 mm; upper glumes 3-4.5 mm, sometimes 3-veined; lemmas 3.8-4.5 mm, ovate, leathery, 3(4, 5)-veined, lateral veins evident, greenish, upper margins hyaline, apices acute to obtuse, usually erose; paleas 3.8-4.5 mm, membranous, keels scabridulous, apices obtuse to truncate; anthers 3, 2-2.4 mm, purplish to yellowish. |
Caryopses | 0.4-0.7 mm, ovoid to rectangular-prismatic, striate, reddish-brown, adaxial surfaces flat or shallowly grooved, distal 2/3 opaque. |
1.6-2 mm, ellipsoid, dorsally flattened, with a shallow adaxial groove, striate, reddish-brown. |
2n | = 40, 80. |
= 40. |
Eragrostis frankii |
Eragrostis obtusiflora |
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Distribution |
AL; AR; CT; DC; FL; GA; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; MA; MD; MI; MN; MO; MS; NC; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NY; OH; OK; PA; SC; TN; TX; VA; VT; WI; WV; NB; ON; QC
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Discussion | 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 obtusiflora is native to the southwestern United States and Mexico. It grows in dry or wet alkali flats, often in association with Distichlis and Sarcobatus, at 900-1400 m. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 79. | FNA vol. 25, p. 89. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | E. frankii var. brevipes | |
Name authority | C.A. Mey. ex Steud. | (E. Fourn.) Scribn. |
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