Eragrostis bicolor
| Family: | Poaceae |
| Full name: | Eragrostis bicolor Nees |
| Location: | Kyffhäuser (2416AD + 2416CB) |
| ID status: | ID not 100% certain |
| Afrikaans common name(s): | Fynvleigras |
| English common name(s): | Speckled vlei grass, Two-coloured lovegrass |
| Synonym(s): | - |
| Status: | Native |
| Description: | Perennial, densely tufted; culms erect, simple, slender, terete, 1–1.5 ft. long, glabrous, smooth, about 3-noded, upper 2 internodes exserted; sheaths glabrous, striate, lowest pallid, about 2 in. long, shortly tomentose at the insertion; ligule a fringe of minute hairs; blades narrow, linear, tapering to a setaceous point or setaceously filiform almost from the base, 4–8 in. by 1 lin. when flat, glabrous, rather firm, flexuous, smooth below, densely scaberulous on the prominent nerves on the whitish upper side; panicle ovoid to lanceolate, erect or nodding, 3–5 in. long, lax, open or more or less contracted; axis angular, glabrous, smooth, very slender; branches 2-nate or solitary, suberect or more or less spreading, distantly divided from 0.333–1 in. above the base, subcapillary, flexuous or finally rigid, subcompressed, smooth or scaberulous, glabrous at the axils, the longest up to 2.5 in. long; branchlets capillary, contracted or divaricate, few- to 1-spiculate; pedicels very fine, scaberulous, the lateral 0.5–2 lin. long; spikelets oblong to linear, acute, 1.5–2.5 lin. by 0.5– 0.666 lin., loosely 4–9-flowered, variegated; rhachilla very slender, scaberulous, disarticulating; glumes subpersistent oblong-lanceolate, acute to subobtuse, 1-nerved, subhyaline, lower 0.5 lin. long, or almost so, upper 0.666 lin. long; valves broadly oblong in profile, obtuse or subobtuse, somewhat turgid, 0.75 lin. long, smooth, slightly shining, usually purple with yellowish tips, side-nerves stout, though not very distinct, short; pales equal or subequal to the valves, keels fine, scaberulous; anthers almost 0.5 lin. long. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora Capensis) Densely caespitose perennial with short horizontal rhizome; culms up to 50 cm tall, usually erect, unbranched, glabrous at the nodes, with scattered gland-dots; basal leaf sheaths glabrous or obscurely pubescent, chartaceous, terete or lightly compressed and keeled, gland-dotted along the midnerve, persistent; ligule a line of hairs; leaf laminas 3–12(17) cm x 1.5–2.5 mm, linear, flexuous or coiled, flat or involute, glabrous, rarely gland-dotted on the midnerve beneath. Panicle (2.5)4–12(18) cm long, ovate to ovate-oblong, loose and open (very rarely somewhat contracted), the spikelets evenly distributed on pedicels 0.8–2.5 mm long, the primary branches not whorled, terminating in a fertile spikelet, glabrous in the axils, rarely with scattered gland-dots. Spikelets 3–8 x c. 1.5 mm, linear to oblong-lanceolate, lightly laterally compressed, 3–9(12)-flowered, the florets disarticulating from below upwards, the rhachilla persistent; glumes subequal, 1–1.6 mm long, reaching to between 1/2 and 2/3 the way along the adjacent lemmas, lightly keeled, oblong-lanceolate in profile, glabrous or faintly scaberulous, subacute to acute at the apex; lemmas 1.4–1.6 mm long, dorsally rounded or lightly keeled above, semi-ovate in profile (with straight keel and gibbous margins), membranous with distinct lateral nerves, diverging from the rhachilla at up to 45 deg., those in opposite rows not imbricate, the rhachilla visible between them, variegated with green and purple, pallid or yellow at the apex, smooth or faintly scaberulous on the flanks above, obtuse at the apex; palea deciduous with or soon after the lemma, glabrous on the flanks, the keels slender, wingless, scaberulous; anthers 3, 0.6–0.9 mm long. Caryopsis c. 0.6 mm long, oblong. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora Zambesiaca) |
| Link(s) |
African Plant Database
JSTOR Plant Science Kew Herbarium Catalogue BGBM Berlin-Dahlem - Virtual Herbarium Züricher Herbarien iNaturalist (Namibia / Alex Dreyer) iNaturalist (Namibia) iNaturalist (southern Africa) Flora of Zimbabwe Fleurs de notre Terre - Galerie Namibie Tree Atlas of Namibia |
| Photographer: | AA Dreyer |
| Date of photograph: | 24 Sep 2008 |
| Camera make: | Canon |
| Camera model: | PowerShot A700 |
| Lens aperture: | f/4.0 |
| Shutter speed: | 1/1000 s |
| ISO speed: | - |
| Content last updated: | 18 Apr 2024 |
