Eragrostis secundiflora
Eragrostis spectabilis
red lovegrass
eragrostide brillante, purple love grass
30-75 cm, erect, glabrous below.
30-70(85) cm, erect, glabrous.
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.
hairy on the margins and at the apices, hairs to 7 mm;
ligules 0.1-0.2 mm;
blades 10-32 cm long, 3-8 mm wide, flat to involute, both surfaces usually pilose, sometimes glabrous on both surfaces or glabrous abaxially and sparsely pilose adaxially, often with a line of hairs behind the ligules, hairs to 8 mm.
(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.
(15)25-45(60) cm long, 15-35 cm wide, broadly ovate to oblong, open, basal portions sometimes included in the uppermost leaf sheaths;
primary branches (6)12-20 cm long, diverging 20-90° from the rachises, capillary, naked below;
pulvini hairy, hairs to 6 mm;
pedicels 1.5-17 mm, divergent or appressed.
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.
3-7.5 mm long, 1-2 mm wide, linear-lanceolate, reddish-purple, sometimes olivaceous, with (4)6-12 florets;
disarticulation basipetal, glumes persistent.
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 to equal, (1)1.3-2.3 mm, lanceolate, membranous to chartaceous;
lemmas (1)1.3-2.5 mm, ovate to lanceolate, leathery, 3-veined, apices acute;
paleas (1)1.2-2.4 mm, membranous, keels sometimes shortly ciliate, apices obtuse to truncate;
anthers 3, 0.3-0.5 mm, purplish.
0.8-1.3 mm, ellipsoid, somewhat laterally flattened, smooth, reddish-brown.
0.6-0.8 mm, ellipsoid, strongly flattened, adaxial surfaces with 2 prominent ridges separated by a groove, reddish-brown.
= 40.
= 20, 40, 42.
Eragrostis secundiflora
Eragrostis spectabilis
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 spectabilis is native in the eastern portion of the Flora region, extending from southern Canada through the United States, Mexico, and Central America to Belize. It grows in fields and on the margins of woods, along roadsides, and in other disturbed sites, usually in sandy to clay loam soils, at 0-1830 m, and is associated with hardwood forests, Prosopsis-Acacia grasslands, and shortgrass prairies. A showy species, E. spectabilis is available commercially for planting as an ornamental.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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