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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: fosbergii = honorific for Francis Raymond Fosberg 1908 - 1993
Photosynthetic type: C4 (warm season)
Nativity: endemic
Legal status: Hawaii DLNR - Endangered
Map
Holotype specimen
Isotype specimen
Description
Perennials; culms tufted, stout, usually from a geniculate woody base, 6-10 dm tall, glabrous. Sheaths glabrous, basal ones often purple, pilose or glabrous at throat; ligule a dense row of short hairs ca. 0.3 mm long, also with deciduous hairs up to 7 mm long; blades coriaceous, flat but involute toward apex, 40-60 cm long, 5-10 mm wide, upper surface scabrous, lower surface glabrous. Inflorescences paniculate, pyramidal, somewhat open, 20-40 cm long, axils at the branches pilose, bearing spikelets almost to base, the lower branches glabrous, the upper ones scabrous; spikelets pale green to dark green, 3-5(-10)-flowered, compressed, 4-5 mm long; glumes subequal, slender, 2-3 mm long, deciduous, keel scabrous, long-ciliate, apex acuminate, base usually auriculate; lemmas loosely imbricate, slightly exposing the scabrous rachilla, 2.5-3 mm long, occasionally ciliate, keel scaberulous, apex acuminate; palea usually conspicuous, 2.5-2.8 mm long, keel scabrous-ciliate, apex bifid or truncate. Caryopsis not seen.
(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 )