Eragrostis mexicana
Eragrostis atrovirens
giant helleborine, Mexican love grass, Orcutt's lovegrass
thalia lovegrass
10-130 cm, erect, sometimes geniculate, glabrous, sometimes with a ring of glandular depressions below the nodes.
(60)75-130 cm, erect.
sometimes with glandular pits, pilose near the apices and on the collars, hairs to 4 mm, papillose-based;
ligules 0.2-0.5 mm, ciliate;
blades 5-25 cm long, 2-7(9) mm wide, flat, abaxial surfaces glabrous, adaxial surfaces scabridulous, occasionally pubescent near the base.
glabrous, apices hairy, hairs to 4 mm;
ligules 0.1-0.3 mm;
blades (5)8-20 cm long, (1)2-3(4) mm wide, flat to involute, abaxial surfaces glabrous, adaxial surfaces mostly scabridulous, long ciliate basally.
(5)10-40 cm long, (2)4-18 cm wide, ovate, rachises angled and channeled;
primary branches 3-12(15) cm, solitary to whorled, appressed or diverging to 80° from the rachises;
secondary branches somewhat appressed;
pulvini glabrous;
pedicels 1-6(7) mm, almost appressed to narrowly divergent, stiff.
(7)10-20(28) cm long, (2.5)4-15 cm wide, ovate, open;
primary branches (3)5-10(13) cm, diverging 20-60° from the rachises, wiry, somewhat capillary, naked basally;
pulvini glabrous or sparingly hairy, hairs shorter than 2 mm;
pedicels 1-10 mm, appressed, scabridulous.
(4)5-10(11) mm long, 0.7-2.4 mm wide, ovate to linear-lanceolate, gray-green to purplish, with 5-11(15) florets;
disarticulation acropetal.
5-10(19) mm long, 1.4-2.4 mm wide, ovate-lanceolate, plumbeous to purplish, with 10-22 florets;
disarticulation acropetal, glumes first, then the florets.
subequal, 0.7-2(2.3) mm, ovate to lanceolate, membranous;
lemmas 1.2-2.4 mm, ovate, membranous, glabrous or with a few hairs, gray-green, lateral veins evident, often greenish, apices acute;
paleas 1-2.2 mm, hyaline, keels scabrous, apices obtuse to truncate;
anthers 3, 0.2-0.5 mm, purplish.
subequal, lanceolate to ovate, membranous;
lower glumes 1.2-1.4 mm, narrower than the upper glumes;
upper glumes 1.4-1.7 mm;
lemmas (1.5)1.7-2 mm, broadly ovate, leathery, keels scabridu-lous, lateral veins evident, apices acute;
paleas 1.4-1.9 mm, hyaline, bases not projecting beyond the lemmas, keels scabridulous, apices acute to obtuse;
anthers 3, 0.7-0.9 mm, reddish-purple.
0.5-0.8(1) mm, ovoid to rectangular-prismatic, laterally compressed, shallowly to deeply grooved on the adaxial surface, striate, reddish-brown, distal 2/3 opaque.
0.6-0.9 mm, obovoid to ellipsoid, terete, opaque, somewhat striate, reddish-brown.
= 60.
= 60.
Eragrostis mexicana
Eragrostis atrovirens
Eragrostis mexicana grows along roadsides, near cultivated fields, and in disturbed open areas, at 100-3000 m. It is native to the Americas, its native range extending from the southwestern United States through Mexico, Central and northern South America, to Argentina. Within the Flora region, it has been introduced beyond its native range, often becoming an established part of the flora.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Eragrostis atrovirens is native to northern Africa, but it is now established in southeastern United States, where it grows along railways and roads, on beaches and in ditches, often in wet sandy soils and in association with Pinus, Taxodium, and Sabal.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Spikelets ovate to oblong in outline, 1.5-2.4mm wide; lower glumes 1.2-2.3 mm long; sum of the spikelet width and lower glume length 2.7-4.7 mm; culms and sheaths sometimes with glandular depressions | subsp. mexicana |
1. Spikelets linear to linear-lanceolate, 0.7-1.4 wide; lower glumes 0.7-1.7 mm long; sum of the spikelet width and lower glume length 1.5-3.1 mm; culms and sheaths without glandular depressions | subsp. virescens |
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