Eragrostis secundiflora
Eragrostis airoides
red lovegrass
darnel lovegrass
30-75 cm, erect, glabrous below.
30-110 cm, erect, glabrous below the nodes.
mostly glabrous, hairy at the apices, hairs to 4 mm;
ligules 0.2-0.3 mm;
blades 10-25(40) cm long, 1-5 mm wide, involute, glabrous abaxially, scabridulous adaxially, sometimes also sparsely pilose.
glabrous or pilose, hairs to 5 mm;
ligules 0.1-0.2 mm;
blades 8-22 mm long, (1)2-4(5) mm wide, flat to folded, glabrous abaxially, scabridulous adaxially.
(3)5-30 cm long, 1-15 cm wide, from narrowly oblong, glomerate, and interrupted below to ovate and open;
primary branches 0.5-12(16) cm, appressed or diverging up to 40° from the rachises, stiff;
pulvini glabrous or sparsely hairy;
pedicels 0-1(3) mm, appressed, flattened.
18-70 cm long, 3-25 cm wide, diffuse, ovate;
primary branches 4-20 cm, appressed or diverging 10-70° from the rachises, naked basally;
pulvini glabrous;
pedicels 2.4-11 mm, divergent.
6-16(23) cm long, 2.4-5 mm wide, ovate to linear-elliptic, flattened, stramineous, with reddish-purple margins or completely reddish-purple, with 10-45 florets;
disarticulation basipetal, florets falling intact and before the glumes.
1.3-2 mm long, 0.8-1.8 mm wide, ovate to lanceolate, plumbeous, with 1-3 florets;
disarticulation acropetal, in the rachilla below the florets, glumes deciduous;
rachilla prolonged above the terminal floret.
ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, membranous;
lower glumes 1.7-3 mm;
upper glumes 2.2-4 mm, apices acuminate;
lemmas 2-6 mm, ovate, membranous to leathery, apices usually acuminate or attenuate, sometimes acute;
paleas 1.5-3 mm, membranous to leathery, narrower than the lemmas, apices obtuse, sometimes bifid;
anthers 2, 0.2-0.5 mm, brownish.
lanceolate to ovate, membranous;
lower glumes 0.8-1 mm;
upper glumes 1.1-1.4 mm;
lemmas 0.8-1.2 mm, ovate, membranous, plumbeous, keels and lateral veins inconspicuous, apices obtuse;
paleas 0.8-1.2 mm, membranous, bases not projecting beyond the lemmas, apices obtuse;
anthers 3, 0.3-0.5 mm, purplish.
0.8-1.3 mm, ellipsoid, somewhat laterally flattened, smooth, reddish-brown.
0.4-0.5 mm, ovoid, reticulate, reddish-brown.
.).
= 40.
= 36 (Davidse, pers.
Eragrostis secundiflora
Eragrostis airoides
There are two subspecies of E. secundiflora; plants from the Flora region belong to E. secundiflora subsp. oxylepis (Torrey) S.D. Koch. They grow in sandy soils, dunes, grasslands, beaches, and roadsides of the southern United States and northern Mexico, at 0-1000 m. Eragrostis secundiflora J. Presl subsp. secundiflora grows in Mexico and Central and South America.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Eragrostis airoides is a South American species that, in the Flora region, is known only from roadsides and disturbed sites in Brazos County, Texas. It is an enigmatic species, often treated as Sporobolus brasiliensis (Raddi) Hack., which it resembles in its chromosome base number of x = 9 and caryopsis morphology, but its frequent possession of spikelets with more than 1 floret and its mode of spikelet disarticulation argue for its retention in Eragrostis.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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