Eragrostis lugens
Eragrostis spicata
mourning lovegrass
spike lovegrass
30-70 cm, erect, sometimes geniculate, glabrous below the nodes.
75-100 cm, erect, glabrous.
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.
hirtellous on the margins when immature, apices glabrous or hairy shorter than 0.5 mm;
ligules 0.2-0.3 mm;
blades 20-40 cm long, 2-5(6) mm wide, flat to involute, glabrous abaxially, scabrous adaxially.
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.
22-40 cm long, 0.3-0.6 cm wide, spikelike, dense;
primary branches shorter than 1.2 cm, closely appressed, spikelet-bearing to the base;
pulvini glabrous;
pedicels 0.1-0.6 mm, mostly appressed, hirtellous.
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.
1.4-2.2 mm long, 0.9-1.2 mm wide, ovate, stramineous to light greenish, with 2-3 florets;
disarticulation basipetal, in the rachilla below the individual florets or at the base of the florets, glumes 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.
elliptic to ovate, hyaline, keels ciliolate;
lower glumes 0.7-1 mm;
upper glumes 0.9-1.3 mm, apices obtuse;
lemmas 1.5-2.1 mm, ovate, membranous to hyaline, apices acute to obtuse;
paleas 1.1-1.6 mm, hyaline, not wider than the lemmas, apices obtuse;
anthers 2, 0.3-0.4 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.
0.7-1 mm, ellipsoid, somewhat ventrally flattened, smooth to faintly striate, reddish-brown.
= 40, 80, ca. 108.
= 40.
Eragrostis lugens
Eragrostis spicata
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 spicata grows in moist areas in prairies, usually in deep, sandy, clay loam soils, at 0-70 m. It is native from southern Texas to Mexico and in Paraguay and Argentina. In North America, it grows with Andropogon, Quercus stellata, Prosopsis glandulosa, and Acacia.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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