Eragrostis frankii
Eragrostis spicata
sandbar lovegrass, éragrostide de Frank
spike lovegrass
10-50 cm, erect to geniculate, glabrous, often with glandular pits below the nodes.
75-100 cm, erect, glabrous.
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.
hirtellous on the margins when immature, apices glabrous or hairy shorter than 0.5 mm;
ligules 0.2-0.3 mm;
blades 20-40 cm long, 2-5(6) mm wide, flat to involute, glabrous abaxially, scabrous adaxially.
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.
22-40 cm long, 0.3-0.6 cm wide, spikelike, dense;
primary branches shorter than 1.2 cm, closely appressed, spikelet-bearing to the base;
pulvini glabrous;
pedicels 0.1-0.6 mm, mostly appressed, hirtellous.
(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.
1.4-2.2 mm long, 0.9-1.2 mm wide, ovate, stramineous to light greenish, with 2-3 florets;
disarticulation basipetal, in the rachilla below the individual florets or at the base of the florets, glumes 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.
elliptic to ovate, hyaline, keels ciliolate;
lower glumes 0.7-1 mm;
upper glumes 0.9-1.3 mm, apices obtuse;
lemmas 1.5-2.1 mm, ovate, membranous to hyaline, apices acute to obtuse;
paleas 1.1-1.6 mm, hyaline, not wider than the lemmas, apices obtuse;
anthers 2, 0.3-0.4 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.
0.7-1 mm, ellipsoid, somewhat ventrally flattened, smooth to faintly striate, reddish-brown.
= 40, 80.
= 40.
Eragrostis frankii
Eragrostis spicata
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 spicata grows in moist areas in prairies, usually in deep, sandy, clay loam soils, at 0-70 m. It is native from southern Texas to Mexico and in Paraguay and Argentina. In North America, it grows with Andropogon, Quercus stellata, Prosopsis glandulosa, and Acacia.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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