Eragrostis intermedia
Eragrostis reptans
plains lovegrass
creeping lovegrass
(30)40-90(110) cm, erect, glabrous below the nodes.
rooting at the lower nodes, erect portion 5-20 cm, glabrous, pilose, or villous, particularly below the panicles.
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.
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.
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, 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.
3-7 mm long, 1-1.8 mm wide, narrowly lanceolate, olivaceous to purplish, with (3)5-11 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.
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, 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.
0.5-0.9 mm, rectangular-prismatic, somewhat laterally compressed, with a well-developed adaxial groove, striate, opaque, reddish-brown.
0.4-0.6 mm, ellipsoid, somewhat laterally compressed, smooth, light reddish-brown.
= ca. 54, 60, 72, ca. 74, 80, 100, 120.
= 60.
Eragrostis intermedia
Eragrostis reptans
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 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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