Eragrostis sessilispica

Buckley
Common names: Tumble lovegrass
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 25. Treatment on page 103.

Plants perennial; cespitose, with innovations, without rhizomes, not glandular. Culms 30-90 cm, erect or decumbent, glabrous below the nodes. Sheaths hairy at the apices and on the collars, sometimes also on the distal portion of the margins, hairs to 5 mm; ligules 0.4-0.5 mm; blades 5-30 cm long, 1-3 mm wide, usually involute, sometimes flat, abaxial surfaces glabrous or sparsely pilose, hairs to 5 mm, adaxial surfaces scabridulous. Panicles 20-65 cm long, 10-35 cm wide, ovate, open; primary branches 2-20 (24) cm, widely spaced, diverging 20-100° from the rachises, not rebranched, naked basally; pulvini hairy; pedicels 0-12 mm, appressed, proximal spikelets on each branch sessile or subsessile, the pedicels shorter than 0.4 mm. Spikelets 5-13 mm long, 1.4-3 mm wide, oblong to oblanceolate, stramineous to reddish-purple, with 3-12 florets; disarticulation tardy, basipetal, in the rachilla below the florets, glumes persistent. Glumes lanceolate, broad basally, indurate; lower glumes 2.5-6 mm; upper glumes 3-6 mm, apices acuminate; lemmas 3-5 mm, narrowly ovate to lanceolate, indurate, apices acuminate; paleas 2.4-4.6 mm, indurate, gibbous basally but the sides not projecting beyond the lemmas, keels ciliolate, apices obtuse; anthers 3, 0.3-0.5 mm, reddish-brown. Caryopses 0.9-1.5 mm, ovoid to pyriform, laterally flattened, tapering distally, smooth to faintly striate, brownish. 2n = 40.

Distribution

Kans., Okla., N.Mex., Tex.

Discussion

Eragrostis sessilispica grows in prairies, limestone mesas, partial forest openings, and grasslands, gener¬ally in sandy soils, at 0-1220 m, often in association with Prosopsis and Quercus. Its range extends into northern Mexico.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.

"decumbent" is not a number.

... more about "Eragrostis sessilispica"
pilose +  and glabrous +
reddish-brown +
0.03 cm0.3 mm <br />3.0e-4 m <br /> (0.05 cm0.5 mm <br />5.0e-4 m <br />) +
obtuse +  and acuminate +
Paul M. Peterson +
Buckley +
1 (?) +  and 3 (?) +
multiple +, , +  and single +
not +  and glabrous +
keeled +  and rounded +
pseudopetiolate +  and branching +
not fused +
intravaginal +, extravaginal +, branching +  and basal +
swelling +
membranous +
not pseudopetiolate +
5 cm50 mm <br />0.05 m <br /> (30 cm300 mm <br />0.3 m <br />) +
pubescent +  and glabrous +
involute +, folded +  and flat +
0.1 cm1 mm <br />0.001 m <br /> (0.3 cm3 mm <br />0.003 m <br />) +
subsessile +  and sessile +
not spikelike +
pubescent +  and glabrous +
tapering +, flattened +, ovoid +  and pyriform +
0.09 cm0.9 mm <br />9.0e-4 m <br /> (0.15 cm1.5 mm <br />0.0015 m <br />) +
triangular +  and dome--shaped +
sometimes longer +
membranous +
Tumble lovegrass +
branched +, simple +  and rooting +
decumbent +  and erect +
geniculate +
30 cm300 mm <br />0.3 m <br /> (90 cm900 mm <br />0.9 m <br />) +
not woody +
Kans. +, Okla. +, N.Mex. +  and Tex. +
not waisted +
capillary +
pistillate +  and staminate +
sometimes longer +
3 +  and 12 +
round +  and compressed +
reduced +
persistent +
shorter or longer +
subtending +
lanceolate +
uncinate +
0 cm0 mm <br />0 m <br /> (0.5 cm5 mm <br />0.005 m <br />) +
paniculate +  and racemose +
hollow +  and solid +
not absent +
(1)3(5)-veined +
narrowly ovate +  and lanceolate +
0.3 cm3 mm <br />0.003 m <br /> (0.5 cm5 mm <br />0.005 m <br />) +
sometimes longer +
ciliate +  and ciliolate +
0.04 cm0.4 mm <br />4.0e-4 m <br /> (0.05 cm0.5 mm <br />5.0e-4 m <br />) +
membranous +
inconspicuous +
0.25 cm2.5 mm <br />0.0025 m <br /> (0.6 cm6 mm <br />0.006 m <br />) +
concealed +  and prominent +
2 +  and 1 +
persistent +
gibbous +
0.24 cm2.4 mm <br />0.0024 m <br /> (0.46 cm4.6 mm <br />0.0046 m <br />) +
20cm +  and 65cm +
10 cm100 mm <br />0.1 m <br /> (35 cm350 mm <br />0.35 m <br />) +
0.4 cm4 mm <br />0.004 m <br /> (0 cm0 mm <br />0 m <br />) +
dry +  and fleshy +
naked +  and not rebranched +
24 cm240 mm <br />0.24 m <br /> (?) +
2 cm20 mm <br />0.02 m <br /> (20 cm200 mm <br />0.2 m <br />) +
spikelike +
not projecting +
stramineous +  and reddish-purple +
0.5 cm5 mm <br />0.005 m <br /> (1.3 cm13 mm <br />0.013 m <br />) +
1 +  and 60 +
oblong +  and oblanceolate +
1.4mm +  and 3mm +
1 +  and 3 +
compound +  and simple +
2 (?) +  and 3 (?) +
Gramineae +
Eragrostis sessilispica +
Eragrostis +
species +
membranous +
0.3 cm3 mm <br />0.003 m <br /> (0.6 cm6 mm <br />0.006 m <br />) +
7 (?) +  and 13 (?) +
rhizomatous +  and stoloniferous +
plant +  and cespitose +
aquatic +  and terrestrial +
dioecious +  and synoecious +