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giant helleborine, Mexican love grass, Orcutt's lovegrass

Chinese lovegrass

Habit Plants annual; cespitose, without innovations. Plants annual; tufted, without innovations, without glands.
Culms

10-130 cm, erect, sometimes geniculate, glabrous, sometimes with a ring of glandular depressions below the nodes.

10-50 cm, erect, glabrous below the nodes.

Sheaths

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.

Leaves

mostly basal;

sheaths mostly glabrous, apices pilose, hairs 0.4-3 mm;

ligules 0.1-0.2 mm, ciliate;

blades (1.8)5-12 cm long, 2-6 mm wide, flat to involute, abaxial surfaces glabrous, adaxial surfaces scabridulous and glabrous or sparsely hairy, hairs appressed.

Panicles

(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.

6-15 cm long, 0.5-7 cm wide, ovate, open to contracted;

primary branches 0.2-5 cm, appressed or diverging up to 70° from the rachises, glabrous;

pulvini glabrous;

pedicels 2-8 mm, glabrous.

Spikelets

(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.

4-8(10) mm long, (1.6)2-4 mm wide, ovate-lanceolate, loosely imbricate, straw-colored to purplish, with 12-42 florets;

disarticulation acropetal, paleas not persistent, rachillas persistent.

Glumes

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.

ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, hyaline to membranous;

lower glumes 1-1.8 mm;

upper glumes 1-2.2 mm;

lemmas 1.5-1.9 mm, broadly ovate, membranous, lateral veins raised, apices obtuse to acute;

paleas 1.4-1.9 mm, hyaline, keels scabridulous, apices acute to obtuse;

anthers 2, 0.2-0.4 mm, purplish.

Caryopses

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, ellipsoid, laterally compressed, not grooved, smooth, light brown.

2n

= 60.

= 20, ca. 30.

Eragrostis mexicana

Eragrostis unioloides

Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; CO; DE; FL; IA; ID; IL; IN; MA; MD; ME; ND; NM; NV; OR; SC; TX; UT; WA; WI; BC; ON
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
FL; GA; MD; HI
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

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 unioloides is an Asian species that is now established in the southeastern United States, growing along roadsides and in disturbed ground, at 20-150 m.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Key
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
Source FNA vol. 25, p. 78. FNA vol. 25, p. 85.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis
Sibling taxa
E. airoides, E. amabilis, E. atrovirens, E. bahiensis, E. barrelieri, E. capillaris, E. cilianensis, E. ciliaris, E. cumingii, E. curtipedicellata, E. curvula, E. cylindriflora, E. echinochloidea, E. elliottii, E. elongata, E. erosa, E. frankii, E. gangetica, E. hirsuta, E. hypnoides, E. intermedia, E. japonica, E. lehmanniana, E. lugens, E. lutescens, E. minor, E. obtusiflora, E. palmeri, E. pectinacea, E. pilosa, E. plana, E. polytricha, E. prolifera, E. refracta, E. reptans, E. scaligera, E. secundiflora, E. sessilispica, E. setifolia, E. silveana, E. spectabilis, E. spicata, E. superba, E. swallenii, E. tef, E. trichodes, E. trichophora, E. unioloides
E. airoides, E. amabilis, E. atrovirens, E. bahiensis, E. barrelieri, E. capillaris, E. cilianensis, E. ciliaris, E. cumingii, E. curtipedicellata, E. curvula, E. cylindriflora, E. echinochloidea, E. elliottii, E. elongata, E. erosa, E. frankii, E. gangetica, E. hirsuta, E. hypnoides, E. intermedia, E. japonica, E. lehmanniana, E. lugens, E. lutescens, E. mexicana, E. minor, E. obtusiflora, E. palmeri, E. pectinacea, E. pilosa, E. plana, E. polytricha, E. prolifera, E. refracta, E. reptans, E. scaligera, E. secundiflora, E. sessilispica, E. setifolia, E. silveana, E. spectabilis, E. spicata, E. superba, E. swallenii, E. tef, E. trichodes, E. trichophora
Subordinate taxa
E. mexicana subsp. mexicana, E. mexicana subsp. virescens
Name authority (Hornem.) Link (Retz.) Nees ex Steud.
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