Eragrostis frankii
Eragrostis reptans
sandbar lovegrass, éragrostide de Frank
creeping lovegrass
10-50 cm, erect to geniculate, glabrous, often with glandular pits below the nodes.
rooting at the lower nodes, erect portion 5-20 cm, glabrous, pilose, or villous, particularly below the panicles.
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.
mostly scabrous, margins sometimes with 0.1-0.4 mm hairs;
ligules 0.1-0.6 mm;
blades 1-4 cm long, 1-4.5 mm wide, flat or conduplicate, abaxial surfaces glabrous, adaxial surfaces appressed pubescent, hairs about 0.2 mm.
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, 1-3 cm long, 0.6-2.5 cm wide, ovate, contracted, exerted or partially included in the upper leaf sheaths, rachises somewhat viscid, pilose or glabrous;
primary branches 0.5-1.5 cm, appressed to the rachises, each terminating in a spikelet;
pulvini sparsely pilose or glabrous;
pedicels 0.2-2 mm, shorter than the spikelets, glabrous or hairy.
(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.
5-26 mm long, 1.5-4.7 mm wide, linear to ovate, greenish to stramineous, with 16-60 florets;
disarticulation in the pistillate florets basipetal, the lemmas falling separately, staminate spikelets not or tardily disarticulating.
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, ovate, hyaline, glabrous or sparsely hirsute;
lower glumes 0.8-1.6 mm, 1-veined;
upper glumes 1.5-2.5 mm, 1-3-veined;
lemmas (1.5)1.8-4 mm, ovate, hyaline to membranous, lateral veins conspicuous, greenish, apices acute to acuminate, sometimes prolonged into a mucro, mucros to 0.4 mm;
paleas 0.7-3.8 mm, hyaline, about 1/2 as long as the lemmas in pistillate florets, as long as the lemmas in staminate florets, keels scabridulous;
anthers 3, 1.4-2.2 mm, reddish to yellowish.
0.4-0.7 mm, ovoid to rectangular-prismatic, striate, reddish-brown, adaxial surfaces flat or shallowly grooved, distal 2/3 opaque.
0.4-0.6 mm, ellipsoid, somewhat laterally compressed, smooth, light reddish-brown.
= 40, 80.
= 60.
Eragrostis frankii
Eragrostis reptans
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 reptans grows in wet sand, gravel, and clay soils along rivers and lake margins from the United States to northern Mexico, at 0-400 m, frequently with Cynodon dactylon and Heliotropium. It flowers from April through November.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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