Difference between revisions of "Ehrharta erecta"

Revision as of 21:18, 16 December 2019

Illustrator: Hana Pazdírková, Linda Ann Vorobik

Plants perennial; weakly cespitose. Culms (20)30-100(200) cm, erect or ascending from a decumbent base, sometimes rooting at the lower nodes. Sheaths finely striate, glabrous or shortly pubescent; auricles ciliate; ligules to 3 mm, lacerate, glabrous; blades 5-15 cm long, 2-15 mm wide, flat, lax, usually glabrous, smooth or minutely roughened, margins often wavy. Panicles 5-21 cm, erect or nodding, open to contracted; pedicels usually straight, sometimes curved. Spikelets 3-5 mm, oval, greenish. Glumes unequal, membranous to chartaceous; lower glumes 1-2 mm, 1/3 – 2/3 the length of the spikelets, 3-5-veined; upper glumes 2-2.5 mm, to 3/4 the length of the spikelets, wider than the lower glumes, 5-veined; sterile lemmas 2.5-4.5 mm, indurate, glabrous or sparsely hispidulous, unawned, lower sterile lemmas often with a basal appendage, upper sterile lemmas transversely rugose distally; bisexual lemmas 2.5-3.5 mm, firm, glabrous, obscurely 5-7-veined, often cross veined, unawned; anthers 6, 0.7-1.2 mm. Caryopses about 2 mm. 2n = 24.

Calif., Pacific Islands (Hawaii)

Discussion

Ehrharta erecta was introduced to California from South Africa. It prefers shady, somewhat moist locations, and is best known from the eastern San Francisco Bay area, San Diego, and the campus of the University of California at Riverside. In Australia, it is considered to be a weed of moist, shady places (Jacobs and Hastings 1993). Three varieties have been described; they are not treated here.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa