Eragrostis intermedia |
Eragrostis obtusiflora |
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plains lovegrass |
alkali lovegrass |
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Habit | Plants perennial; cespitose, with innovations, without rhizomes, not glandular. | Plants perennial; rhizomatous, sometimes also stoloniferous, with many innovations and scaly, sharp-tipped rhizomes 4-8 mm thick. |
Culms | (30)40-90(110) cm, erect, glabrous below the nodes. |
15-40(50) cm, erect, stiff, hard. |
Sheaths | sparsely pilose on the margins, apices hairy, hairs to 8 mm, not papillose-based; ligules 0.2-0.4 mm; blades (4)10-20(30) cm long, 1-3 mm wide, flat or involute, abaxial surfaces glabrous, adaxial surfaces densely hairy behind the ligules, elsewhere usually glabrous, occasionally sparsely hairy. |
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 | 15-40 cm long, (8.5)15-30 cm wide, ovate, open; primary branches 4-25 cm, diverging 20-90° from the rachises, capillary; pulvini hairy or glabrous; pedicels 2-14 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 | 3-7 mm long, 1-1.8 mm wide, narrowly lanceolate, olivaceous to purplish, with (3)5-11 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 | lanceolate to ovate, hyaline to membranous; lower glumes 1.1-1.7 mm, narrower than the upper glumes; upper glumes 1.3-2 mm, apices acuminate to acute; lemmas 1.6-2.2 mm, ovate, membranous, hyaline near the margins, lateral veins inconspicuous, apices acute; paleas 1.4-2.1 mm, hyaline, narrower than the lemmas, apices obtuse to acute; anthers 3, 0.5-0.8 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 | 0.5-0.9 mm, rectangular-prismatic, somewhat laterally compressed, with a well-developed adaxial groove, striate, opaque, reddish-brown. |
1.6-2 mm, ellipsoid, dorsally flattened, with a shallow adaxial groove, striate, reddish-brown. |
2n | = ca. 54, 60, 72, ca. 74, 80, 100, 120. |
= 40. |
Eragrostis intermedia |
Eragrostis obtusiflora |
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Distribution |
AL; AR; AZ; CA; FL; GA; KS; LA; MA; ME; MO; MS; NC; NM; OK; SC; TN; TX; VA
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Discussion | Eragrostis intermedia grows in clay, sandy, and rocky soils, often in disturbed sites, at 0-1850 m. Its range extends from the United States through Mexico and Central America to South America. Eragrostis intermedia is similar to the more widespread E. lugens, but differs from that species in having wider spikelets, longer lemmas, and caryopses with a prominent adaxial groove. (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. 97. | FNA vol. 25, p. 89. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | Hitchc. | (E. Fourn.) Scribn. |
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