Eragrostis lugens
Eragrostis tef
mourning lovegrass
teff
30-70 cm, erect, sometimes geniculate, glabrous below the nodes.
25-60 cm, erect, glabrous and shiny.
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.
mostly glabrous, apices hairy, hairs to 5 mm;
ligules 0.2-0.4 mm, ciliate;
blades 10-30 cm long, 2-5.5 mm wide, flat to involute, glabrous abaxially, scabridulous 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.
10-45 cm long, 2.5-22 cm wide, ovate, open to contracted;
primary branches 4-17 cm, appressed or diverging up to 50° from the rachises, flexible, naked below;
pulvini glabrous or hairy, hairs to 5 mm;
pedicels 2.5-17 mm, appressed or divergent.
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.
4-11 mm long, 1.3-2.5 mm wide, linear-lanceolate to ovate, stramineous, grayish-green to purplish, with 4-16 florets;
disarticulation tardy, acropetal, caryopses falling before the glumes and lemmas, paleas 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, membranous to hyaline;
lower glumes 1-2 mm;
upper glumes 1.5-2.8 mm;
lemmas 1.6-3 mm, lanceolate, membranous, apices acute;
paleas 1.4-2.2 mm, hyaline, keels scabridulous, apices obtuse;
anthers 3, 0.2-0.5 mm, purplish.
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.
0.7-1.3 mm, obovoid, not grooved, smooth, light brown to whitish.
= 40, 80, ca. 108.
= 40.
Eragrostis lugens
Eragrostis tef
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 tef is native to northern Africa. In Ethiopia, it is used both as a grain and as fodder for cattle. It is also grown, but not commonly, for these purposes in the Flora region and is occasionally found as an escape from cultivation.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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