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mourning lovegrass

eragrostide pecttnee, tuft love grass

Habit Plants perennial; cespitose, with innovations, without rhizomes, not glandular. Plants annual; tufted, without innovations, without glandular pits.
Culms

30-70 cm, erect, sometimes geniculate, glabrous below the nodes.

10-80 cm, erect to geniculate or decumbent below, glabrous.

Sheaths

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.

hirsute at the apices, hairs to 4 mm;

ligules 0.2-0.5 mm;

blades 2-20 cm long, 1-4.5 mm wide, flat to involute, abaxial surfaces glabrous and smooth, adaxial surfaces scabridulous.

Panicles

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.

5-25 cm long, 3-12(15) cm wide, ovoid to pyramidal, usually open, sometimes contracted;

primary branches 0.6-8.5 cm, appressed or diverging to 80° from the rachises, solitary or paired at the lowest 2 nodes;

pulvini glabrous or sparsely hairy;

pedicels 1-7 mm, flexible, appressed to widely divergent, sometimes capillary.

Spikelets

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.

3.5-11 mm long, 1.2-2.5 mm wide, linear-oblong to narrowly lanceolate, plumbeous, yellowish-brown, or dark reddish-purple, with 6-22 florets;

disarticulation acropetal, paleas persistent.

Glumes

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.

subulate to ovate-lanceolate, hyaline;

lower glumes 0.5-1.5 mm, at least 1/2 as long as the adjacent lemmas;

upper glumes 1-1.7 mm, usually broader than the lower glumes;

lemmas 1-2.2 mm, ovate-lanceolate, hyaline to membranous, grayish-green proximally, reddish-purple distally, lateral veins moderately conspicuous, apices acute;

paleas 1-2 mm, hyaline to membranous, keels scabridulous, apices obtuse;

anthers 3, 0.2-0.7 mm, purplish.

Caryopses

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.

0.5-1.1 mm, pyriform, slightly laterally compressed, smooth, faintly striate, brownish.

2n

= 40, 80, ca. 108.

= 60.

Eragrostis lugens

Eragrostis pectinacea

Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; FL; GA; LA; MO; MS; NC; OK; SC; TN; TX
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AL; AR; AZ; CA; CO; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; HI; PR; BC; NB; NS; ON; QC; Virgin Islands
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

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 pectinacea is native from southern Canada to Argentina. In the Flora region, it grows in disturbed sites such as roadsides, railroad embankments, gardens, and cultivated fields, at 0-1200 m.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Key
1. Anthers 0.5-0.7 mm long
var. tracyi
1. Anthers 0.2-0.4 mm long.
→ 2
2. Pedicels appressed, rarely diverging to 20° from the branches
var. pectinacea
2. Pedicels widely divergent, usually diverging 20-60° from the branches
var. miserrima
Source FNA vol. 25, p. 95. FNA vol. 25, p. 81.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis
Sibling taxa
E. airoides, E. amabilis, E. atrovirens, E. bahiensis, E. barrelieri, E. capillaris, E. cilianensis, E. ciliaris, E. cumingii, E. curtipedicellata, E. curvula, E. cylindriflora, E. echinochloidea, E. elliottii, E. elongata, E. erosa, E. frankii, E. gangetica, E. hirsuta, E. hypnoides, E. intermedia, E. japonica, E. lehmanniana, E. lutescens, E. mexicana, E. minor, E. obtusiflora, E. palmeri, E. pectinacea, E. pilosa, E. plana, E. polytricha, E. prolifera, E. refracta, E. reptans, E. scaligera, E. secundiflora, E. sessilispica, E. setifolia, E. silveana, E. spectabilis, E. spicata, E. superba, E. swallenii, E. tef, E. trichodes, E. trichophora, E. unioloides
E. airoides, E. amabilis, E. atrovirens, E. bahiensis, E. barrelieri, E. capillaris, E. cilianensis, E. ciliaris, E. cumingii, E. curtipedicellata, E. curvula, E. cylindriflora, E. echinochloidea, E. elliottii, E. elongata, E. erosa, E. frankii, E. gangetica, E. hirsuta, E. hypnoides, E. intermedia, E. japonica, E. lehmanniana, E. lugens, E. lutescens, E. mexicana, E. minor, E. obtusiflora, E. palmeri, E. pilosa, E. plana, E. polytricha, E. prolifera, E. refracta, E. reptans, E. scaligera, E. secundiflora, E. sessilispica, E. setifolia, E. silveana, E. spectabilis, E. spicata, E. superba, E. swallenii, E. tef, E. trichodes, E. trichophora, E. unioloides
Subordinate taxa
E. pectinacea var. miserrima, E. pectinacea var. pectinacea, E. pectinacea var. tracyi
Name authority Nees (Michx.) Nees
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