Eragrostis secundiflora |
Eragrostis curvula |
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red lovegrass |
weeping love grass |
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Habit | Plants perennial; cespitose, with innovations, without rhizomes, not glandular. | Plants perennial; cespitose, forming innovations at the basal nodes, without glands. |
Culms | 30-75 cm, erect, glabrous below. |
(45)60-150 cm, erect, glabrous or glandular. |
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. |
with scattered hairs, hairs to 9 mm; ligules 0.6-1.3 mm; blades 12-50(65) cm long, 1-3 mm wide, flat to involute, abaxial surfaces glabrous, sometimes scabridulous, adaxial surfaces with scattered hairs basally, hairs to 7 mm. |
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. |
16-35(40) cm long, (4)8-24 cm wide, ovate to oblong, open; primary branches 3-14 cm, diverging 10-80° from the rachises; pulvini glabrous or not; pedicels 0.5-5 mm, appressed, flexible. |
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. |
4-8.2(10) mm long, 1.2-2 mm wide, linear-lanceolate, plumbeous to yellowish, with 3-10 florets; disarticulation irregular to acropetal, proximal rachilla segments persistent. |
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. |
lanceolate, hyaline; lower glumes 1.2-2.6 mm; upper glumes 2-3 mm; lemmas 1.8-3 mm, ovate, membranous, lateral veins conspicuous, apices acute; paleas 1.8-3 mm, hyaline to membranous, apices obtuse; anthers 3, 0.6-1.2 mm, reddish-brown. |
Caryopses | 0.8-1.3 mm, ellipsoid, somewhat laterally flattened, smooth, reddish-brown. |
1-1.7 mm, ellipsoid to obovoid, dorsally compressed, adaxial surfaces with a shallow, broad groove or ungrooved, smooth, mostly translucent, light brown, bases often greenish. |
2n | = 40. |
= 40, 50. |
Eragrostis secundiflora |
Eragrostis curvula |
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Distribution |
AL; AR; CA; CO; FL; GA; KS; LA; MO; MS; NC; NE; NM; OK; SC; TN; TX; VA
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AL; AR; AZ; CA; CO; DE; FL; GA; IL; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; MO; MS; NC; NJ; NM; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; SC; TN; TX; UT; VA; WA; WV; HI; PR
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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 curvula is native to southern Africa. It is often used for reclamation because it provides good ground cover but, once introduced, it easily escapes. In the Flora region, it grows on rocky slopes, at the margins of woods, along roadsides, and in waste ground, at 20-2400 m, usually in pine-oak woodlands, and yellow pine and mixed hardwood forests. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 99. | FNA vol. 25, p. 76. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Eragrostis |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | E. curvula var. conferta, E. chloromelas | |
Name authority | J. Presl | (Schrad.) Nees |
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