Eragrostis rotifer
| Family: | Poaceae |
| Full name: | Eragrostis rotifer Rendle |
| Location: | Kyffhäuser (2416AD + 2416CB) |
| ID status: | Fairly certain |
| Afrikaans common name(s): | Reëngras, Reëngrassie, Vleipluimgras |
| English common name(s): | Pearly love grass, Vlei lovegrass |
| Synonym(s): | Eragrostis airiformis Rendle Eragrostis angusta Hack. Eragrostis beroensis Rendle fide Fl. Trop. E. Africa Eragrostis densiflora Rendle fide Fl. Trop. E. Africa Eragrostis margaritacea Stapf Eragrostis platyphylla Rendle fide Fl. Trop. E. Africa |
| Status: | Native |
| Description: | Robust tufted perennial, the basal sheaths silky pubescent below; culms 60–150 cm high, erect. Leaf-blades flat or rolled, up to 30 cm long and 4 mm wide, stiff, glaucous. Panicle lanceolate to ovate, 25–35 cm long, the branches, or at least the lower, in successive whorls, these pubescent to pilose in the axils. Spikelets 7–16-flowered, linear, 4–10 mm long, 1 mm wide, greyish green with yellow tips to the lemmas, breaking up from the base, the rhachilla persistent; glumes narrowly ovate-elliptic, subequal, 1.2–1.5 mm long, faintly nerved, membranous, obtuse; lemmas broadly ovate, 1.1–1.5 mm long, obscurely nerved, membranous, obtuse or acute; palea falling soon after the lemma, the keels scaberulous; anthers 3, 0.5–0.8 mm long. Caryopsis ellipsoid, 0.7 mm long. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora of Tropical East Africa) Robust caespitose perennial without rhizomes or stolons; culms up to 150 cm tall, erect, branched or unbranched, glabrous at the nodes, sometimes with glandular dots or patches below the nodes; basal leaf sheaths silky-pubescent at the base, chartaceous, terete, eglandular, persistent; ligule a line of hairs; leaf laminas 10–30 cm x 2–4 mm, linear, flat or involute, stiff and glaucous, glabrous, eglandular. Panicle 25–35 cm long, lanceolate to ovate, loose, the spikelets somewhat condensed about the primary branches on pedicels 2–5 mm long, the primary branches whorled (especially below), terminating in a fertile spikelet, pubescent to pilose in the axils, eglandular. Spikelets 4–10 x c. 1 mm, linear, lightly laterally compressed, 7–16-flowered, the florets disarticulating from below upwards, the rhachilla persistent; glumes subequal (the inferior a little shorter than the superior), 1.2–1.5 mm long, the inferior reaching from 1/2 to 2/3 the way along the adjacent lemma, the superior 1/4 to 1/3 the way, lightly keeled, lanceolate-elliptic in profile, glabrous, obtuse at the apex; lemmas 1.1–1.6 mm long, lightly keeled, narrowly ovate-elliptic in profile, membranous with faint lateral nerves, appressed to or very slightly diverging from the rhachilla, those in opposite rows not imbricate, the rhachilla visible between them, greyish-green with yellow apex, glabrous, obtuse or acute at the apex; palea deciduous soon after the lemma, glabrous on the flanks, the keels slender, wingless, scaberulous; anthers 3, 0.5–0.8 mm long. Caryopsis 0.7–0.9 mm long, elliptic. (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: | 05 Apr 2009 |
| Camera make: | Canon |
| Camera model: | PowerShot A700 |
| Lens aperture: | f/4.0 |
| Shutter speed: | 1/800 s |
| ISO speed: | - |
| Content last updated: | 18 Apr 2024 |
