Eragrostis mexicana
Eragrostis intermedia
giant helleborine, Mexican love grass, Orcutt's lovegrass
plains lovegrass
10-130 cm, erect, sometimes geniculate, glabrous, sometimes with a ring of glandular depressions below the nodes.
(30)40-90(110) cm, erect, glabrous below the nodes.
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.
sparsely pilose on the margins, apices hairy, hairs to 8 mm, not papillose-based;
ligules 0.2-0.4 mm;
blades (4)10-20(30) cm long, 1-3 mm wide, flat or involute, abaxial surfaces glabrous, adaxial surfaces densely hairy behind the ligules, elsewhere usually glabrous, occasionally sparsely hairy.
(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.
15-40 cm long, (8.5)15-30 cm wide, ovate, open;
primary branches 4-25 cm, diverging 20-90° from the rachises, capillary;
pulvini hairy or glabrous;
pedicels 2-14 mm, divergent.
(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.
3-7 mm long, 1-1.8 mm wide, narrowly lanceolate, olivaceous to purplish, with (3)5-11 florets;
disarticulation acropetal, paleas persistent.
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.
lanceolate to ovate, hyaline to membranous;
lower glumes 1.1-1.7 mm, narrower than the upper glumes;
upper glumes 1.3-2 mm, apices acuminate to acute;
lemmas 1.6-2.2 mm, ovate, membranous, hyaline near the margins, lateral veins inconspicuous, apices acute;
paleas 1.4-2.1 mm, hyaline, narrower than the lemmas, apices obtuse to acute;
anthers 3, 0.5-0.8 mm, purplish.
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.
0.5-0.9 mm, rectangular-prismatic, somewhat laterally compressed, with a well-developed adaxial groove, striate, opaque, reddish-brown.
= 60.
= ca. 54, 60, 72, ca. 74, 80, 100, 120.
Eragrostis mexicana
Eragrostis intermedia
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 intermedia grows in clay, sandy, and rocky soils, often in disturbed sites, at 0-1850 m. Its range extends from the United States through Mexico and Central America to South America. Eragrostis intermedia is similar to the more widespread E. lugens, but differs from that species in having wider spikelets, longer lemmas, and caryopses with a prominent adaxial groove.
(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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