Eragrostis lugens |
Eragrostis sessilispica |
|
---|---|---|
mourning lovegrass |
tumble lovegrass |
|
Habit | Plants perennial; cespitose, with innovations, without rhizomes, not glandular. | Plants perennial; cespitose, with innovations, without rhizomes, not glandular. |
Culms | 30-70 cm, erect, sometimes geniculate, glabrous below the nodes. |
30-90 cm, erect or decumbent, glabrous below the nodes. |
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. |
hairy at the apices and on the collars, sometimes also on the distal portion of the margins, hairs to 5 mm; ligules 0.4-0.5 mm; blades 5-30 cm long, 1-3 mm wide, usually involute, sometimes flat, abaxial surfaces glabrous or sparsely pilose, hairs to 5 mm, 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. |
20-65 cm long, 10-35 cm wide, ovate, open; primary branches 2-20(24) cm, widely spaced, diverging 20-100° from the rachises, not rebranched, naked basally; pulvini hairy; pedicels 0-12 mm, appressed, proximal spikelets on each branch sessile or subsessile, the pedicels shorter than 0.4 mm. |
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. |
5-13 mm long, 1.4-3 mm wide, oblong to oblanceolate, stramineous to reddish-purple, with 3-12 florets; disarticulation tardy, basipetal, in the rachilla below the florets, glumes 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. |
lanceolate, broad basally, indurate; lower glumes 2.5-6 mm; upper glumes 3-6 mm, apices acuminate; lemmas 3-5 mm, narrowly ovate to lanceolate, indurate, apices acuminate; paleas 2.4-4.6 mm, indurate, gibbous basally but the sides not projecting beyond the lemmas, keels ciliolate, apices obtuse; anthers 3, 0.3-0.5 mm, reddish-brown. |
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. |
0.9-1.5 mm, ovoid to pyriform, laterally flattened, tapering distally, smooth to faintly striate, brownish. |
2n | = 40, 80, ca. 108. |
= 40. |
Eragrostis lugens |
Eragrostis sessilispica |
|
Distribution |
AL; AR; FL; GA; LA; MO; MS; NC; OK; SC; TN; TX |
KS; NM; OK; TX |
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 sessilispica grows in prairies, limestone mesas, partial forest openings, and grasslands, generally in sandy soils, at 0-1220 m, often in association with Prosopsis and Quercus. Its range extends into northern Mexico. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 95. | FNA vol. 25, p. 103. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | Nees | Buckley |
Web links |