Eragrostis secundiflora |
Eragrostis atrovirens |
|
---|---|---|
red lovegrass |
thalia lovegrass |
|
Habit | Plants perennial; cespitose, with innovations, without rhizomes, not glandular. | Plants perennial; cespitose, with innovations, without rhizomes, not glandular. |
Culms | 30-75 cm, erect, glabrous below. |
(60)75-130 cm, erect. |
Sheaths | 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, 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. |
Panicles | (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. |
(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. |
Spikelets | 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. |
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. |
Glumes | 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. |
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. |
Caryopses | 0.8-1.3 mm, ellipsoid, somewhat laterally flattened, smooth, reddish-brown. |
0.6-0.9 mm, obovoid to ellipsoid, terete, opaque, somewhat striate, reddish-brown. |
2n | = 40. |
= 60. |
Eragrostis secundiflora |
Eragrostis atrovirens |
|
Distribution |
AL; AR; CA; CO; FL; GA; KS; LA; MO; MS; NC; NE; NM; OK; SC; TN; TX; VA
|
AL; FL; GA |
Discussion | 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 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.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 99. | FNA vol. 25, p. 103. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | J. Presl | (Desf.) Trin. ex Steud. |
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