✕
Info
Subfamily: Chloridoideae
Genus etymology: Eragrostis = "love grass" [Greek] unclear origin, other etymologies such as "early grass" or "very grass" have also been speculated
Species etymology: deflexa = "bent downwards" [Latin] refering to the pedecels sometimes deflexed at maturity
Photosynthetic type: C4 (warm season)
Nativity: endemic
Map
Inflorescence
image credit: Forest & Kim Starr
Plant
Spikelets
Description
Perennials; culms tufted, firm, slender, erect or somewhat decumbent at base, 4-10 dm tall, glabrous. Sheaths glabrous, pilose at throat and on collar; ligule ciliate, ca. 0.2 mm long; blades 10-30 cm long, 1-3(-4) mm wide, flat or involute, upper surface scabrous and pilose near base, lower surface glabrous, apex firm, acute. Inflorescences paniculate, open, oblong, erect, 24 40 cm long, 6-15 cm wide, branches widely spaced, fasciculate, becoming spreading or deflexed, the lowest primary branches 5-9 cm long, scabrous, lower axils densely pilose; spikelets 4-7-flowered, 5-8 mm long, pedicels somewhat flexuous, the lateral ones 2-4 mm long, somewhat compressed, rachilla flexuous, glabrous; glumes subequal, 2.5-3 mm long, keel scaberulous, apex acuminate, the apex of first glume usually slightly longer than first lemma and narrower than second glume; lemmas loosely imbricate, rachilla exposed, rather turgid, ca. 2.5 mm long, ca. 0.7 mm wide, lateral nerves faint, finely scaberulous on upper part of keel and on sides near apex, the apex acute; palea nearly as long as lemma, keels finely scaberulous. Caryopsis dark reddish brown, oblong, laterally compressed, 0.9-1.1 mm long.
(Description source: O’Connor, P.J. 1990. Poaceae, pp. 1481–1604. In: Wagner W.L., Herbst D.R. & Sohmer S.H. (eds.)., Manual of the flowering plant of Hawaiʻi. Vol. 2. University of Hawaii Press & Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu )