| Home | > | List of families | > | Poaceae | > | Eragrostis | > | biflora |
| Synonyms: | |
| Common names: | Shade love grass (English) Two-flowered eragrostis (English) |
| Frequency: | |
| Status: | |
| Description: |
Caespitose annual; culms up to 80 cm tall, erect, unbranched, glabrous at the nodes, eglandular; leaf sheaths glabrous or thinly pilose below; ligule a line of hairs; leaf laminas 9–30 cm × 1.5–5(8) mm, linear, flat or involute, glabrous, eglandular.Panicle 16–30 cm long, narrowly ovate-elliptic, delicate and open, the spikelets evenly distributed on slender pedicels 1.5–5 mm long, the primary branches (or at least the lowermost) in whorls, terminating in a fertile spikelet, glabrous in the axils, eglandular.Spikelets 1.5–2.5 × 0.5–1.2 mm, narrowly elliptic, becoming broadly ovate at maturity, laterally compressed (1)2–3-flowered, the lemmas disarticulating from below upwards, the rhachilla becoming fragile above; glumes subequal, 0.9–1.3 mm long, keeled, narrowly ovate to narrowly lanceolate in profile, scaberulous on the keel, otherwise glabrous, subacute to acute at the apex, the inferior reaching to about 2/3 or more the way along the adjacent lemma, the superior to about the middle; lemmas 1–1.5 mm long, keeled, ovate-elliptic in profile, membranous with distinct lateral nerves, scarcely divergent from the rhachilla, those of a pair (or group of three) without overlapping margins, the rhachilla visible between them, pallid to dark greyish-green, glabrous, subacute and often mucronate at the apex; palea persistent, glabrous on the flanks, the keels slender, wingless, smooth or scaberulous; anthers 3, 0.2–0.3 mm long.Caryopsis 0.6–0.7 mm long, obovate. |
| Notes: | |
| Derivation of specific name: | biflora: 2-flowered |
| Habitat: | Hot dry country, usually in shade of Acacia woodland and Albizia anthelmintica thickets, on sandy soils, at base of rocky outcrops and in dense bush at pan margins |
| Altitude range: (metres) | 930 - 1160 m |
| Flowering time: | |
| Worldwide distribution: | Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe |
| Zimbabwe distribution: | W |
| Growth form(s): | |
| Endemic status: | |
| Red data list status: | |
| Insects associated with this species: | |
| Spot characters: | Display spot characters for this species |
| Literature: |
Cope, T.A. (1999). Poaceae Flora Zambesiaca 10(2) Pages 129 - 130. Isaiah, A.M. & Komi, T. (2015). Grasses in the Botswana National Botanic Garden South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria Page 17. (Includes a picture). Mapaura, A. & Timberlake, J. (eds) (2004). A checklist of Zimbabwean vascular plants Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report No. 33 Sabonet, Pretoria and Harare Page 103. Poilecot, P. (2007). Eragrostis species of Zimbabwe Éditions Quae,Versailles, France Pages 168 - 169. (Includes a picture). Roodt, V. (2015). Grasses & Grazers of Botswana and the surrounding savanna Struik Nature, South Africa Pages 104 - 105. (Includes a picture). Setshogo, M.P. (2005). Preliminary checklist of the plants of Botswana. Sabonet Report no. 37. Sabonet, Pretoria and Gaborone Page 136. |
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