Eragrostis lugens
Eragrostis curvula
mourning lovegrass
weeping love grass
30-70 cm, erect, sometimes geniculate, glabrous below the nodes.
(45)60-150 cm, erect, glabrous or glandular.
usually mostly glabrous, summits hairy, hairs 2-5 mm, never papillose-based;
ligules 0.2-0.3 mm;
blades (4)8-22 cm long, 1-3.5 mm wide, involute to flat, both surfaces glabrous, margins sometimes with scattered hairs, hairs to 7 mm.
with scattered hairs, hairs to 9 mm;
ligules 0.6-1.3 mm;
blades 12-50(65) cm long, 1-3 mm wide, flat to involute, abaxial surfaces glabrous, sometimes scabridulous, adaxial surfaces with scattered hairs basally, hairs to 7 mm.
16-28 cm long, 10-21 cm wide, ovate, open;
primary branches 0.6-15 cm, diverging up to 100° from the rachises, naked basally;
pulvini hairy;
pedicels 1.4-5(7) mm, diverging, wiry, present on all spikelets.
16-35(40) cm long, (4)8-24 cm wide, ovate to oblong, open;
primary branches 3-14 cm, diverging 10-80° from the rachises;
pulvini glabrous or not;
pedicels 0.5-5 mm, appressed, flexible.
2-4.5(5) mm long, 0.5-1(1.3) mm wide, narrowly lanceolate, plumbeous to reddish-purple, with 2-7 florets;
disarticulation acropetal, paleas persistent.
4-8.2(10) mm long, 1.2-2 mm wide, linear-lanceolate, plumbeous to yellowish, with 3-10 florets;
disarticulation irregular to acropetal, proximal rachilla segments persistent.
broadly ovate to narrowly lanceolate, hyaline, sometimes reddish-purple;
lower glumes 0.6-1 mm;
upper glumes 1.1-1.4 mm, usually broader than the lower glumes;
lemmas 1.2-1.8 mm, broadly ovate, mostly membranous but the distal margins hyaline, lateral veins inconspicuous, apices acute;
paleas 1.1-1.7 mm, membranous to hyaline, apices obtuse;
anthers 3, 0.2-0.7 mm, reddish-purple.
lanceolate, hyaline;
lower glumes 1.2-2.6 mm;
upper glumes 2-3 mm;
lemmas 1.8-3 mm, ovate, membranous, lateral veins conspicuous, apices acute;
paleas 1.8-3 mm, hyaline to membranous, apices obtuse;
anthers 3, 0.6-1.2 mm, reddish-brown.
0.5-0.6 mm, obovoid to somewhat prism-shaped, terete to somewhat laterally compressed, sometimes with a weak adaxial groove, finely striate, usually opaque, faintly reddish-brown to whitish.
1-1.7 mm, ellipsoid to obovoid, dorsally compressed, adaxial surfaces with a shallow, broad groove or ungrooved, smooth, mostly translucent, light brown, bases often greenish.
= 40, 80, ca. 108.
= 40, 50.
Eragrostis lugens
Eragrostis curvula
Eragrostis lugens grows on sandy dunes and along river banks, at 1-300 m. Its range extends from the southern United States to Peru and Argentina.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Eragrostis curvula is native to southern Africa. It is often used for reclamation because it provides good ground cover but, once introduced, it easily escapes. In the Flora region, it grows on rocky slopes, at the margins of woods, along roadsides, and in waste ground, at 20-2400 m, usually in pine-oak woodlands, and yellow pine and mixed hardwood forests.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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