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hairysheath lovegrass

eragrostide faux-paturin, lesser love grass, little love grass

Habit Plants perennial; cespitose, with innovations, without rhizomes, not glandular. Plants annual; tufted, without innovations.
Culms

30-62 cm, erect, glabrous and shiny below the nodes.

10-45 cm, erect to decumbent, sometimes with a ring of glandular tissue below the nodes.

Sheaths

sometimes densely pilose dorsally and on the collars, margins and apices hairy, hairs to 5 mm;

ligules 0.2-0.4 mm;

blades 5-20(33) cm long, 1-3.5 mm wide, involute to flat, both surfaces with scattered hairs, adaxial surfaces densely hairy behind the ligules, hairs to 7 mm.

sometimes glandular on the midveins, hairy at the apices, hairs

Panicles

15-25 cm long, 5-27 cm wide, ovate, open;

primary branches 0.6-15 cm, diverging up to 90° from the rachises, capillary, naked basally;

pulvini hairy, hairs to 8 mm;

pedicels 1.4-10(16) mm, divergent.

4-20 cm long, 2.2-8(10) cm wide, ovate, open to contracted, rachises sometimes with glandular spots or pits below the nodes, rarely with a glandular ring, glands usually dull, greenish-gray to stramineous;

primary branches 0.5-6 cm, diverging 20-100° from the rachises;

pulvini glabrous or hairy;

pedicels 1-4 mm, stiff, straight, divergent, usually with a distal ring of crateriform glands.

Spikelets

(2.5)3-5 mm long, 1.1-1.6 mm wide, narrowly lanceolate to linear-oblong, plumbeous, with 4-9 florets;

disarticulation acropetal, paleas persistent.

4-7(11) mm long, 1.1-2.2 mm wide, narrowly ovate, mostly reddish-purple to greenish, occasionally grayish, with 7-12(20) florets;

disarticulation acropetal, paleas persistent.

Glumes

broadly ovate to narrowly lanceolate, hyaline to membranous;

lower glumes 1.1-1.6 mm;

upper glumes 1.2—1.8 mm;

lemmas 1.2-1.8 mm, broadly ovate, membranous throughout, lateral veins inconspicuous, apices acute;

paleas 1.1-1.7 mm, membranous to hyaline, narrower than the lemmas, apices obtuse;

anthers 3, 0.3—0.5 mm, reddish-purple.

broadly ovate, membranous;

lower glumes 0.9-1.4 mm;

upper glumes 1.2-1.6 mm;

lemmas 1.4-1.8 mm, broadly ovate, membranous, keels occasionally with 1-2 crateriform glands, apices acute to obtuse;

paleas 1.3-1.7 mm, hyaline, keels smooth or scabridulous, scabridities to 0.1 mm, apices obtuse to acute;

anthers 2, 0.2-0.3 mm, reddish-brown.

Caryopses

0.5-0.8 mm, obovoid to somewhat prism-shaped, laterally compressed, with a well-developed adaxial groove, finely striate, opaque to translucent, reddish-brown.

0.4-0.7 mm, ellipsoid, not grooved, striate, light brown.

2n

= 60, 80.

= 40.

Eragrostis polytricha

Eragrostis minor

Distribution
from FNA
FL; TX
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AL; AR; CA; CO; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; MT; NC; NE; NH; NJ; NV; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; BC; NB; NS; ON; PE; QC; SK
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Eragrostis polytricha grows in sandy and rocky areas, at 0-30 m, usually in open pinelands. It is native to Florida but its primary range lies to the south of the Flora region, from southern Mexico through Central America to Venezuela, Chile, and Argentina.

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

Eragrostis minor is a European species that now grows in gravelly roadsides and disturbed sites, especially near railroad yards, at 20-1600 m in southern Canada and the contiguous United States.

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

Source FNA vol. 25, p. 95. 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. mexicana, E. minor, E. obtusiflora, E. palmeri, E. pectinacea, E. pilosa, E. plana, 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. 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
Synonyms E. poaeoides
Name authority Nees Host
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