Compilation
Eragrostis curvula

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Name

Identification
Eragrostis curvula (Schrad.) Nees [family POACEAE ] (stored under name); Verified by Clayton, W.D., 1958
Related name
  • Eragrostis planiculmis
  • Eragrostis pubulata
  • Eragrostis curvula
  • Eragrostis capillifolia
  • Eragrostis lehmanniana
  • Eragrostis nebulosa
  • Eragrostis thunbergiana
  • Eragrostis chloromelas
  • Eragrostis robusta
  • Unrecorded unrecorded
  • Poa filiformis
  • Poa curvula
  • Eragrostis subulata
Common name
  • African love-grass (Grounds); weeping love-grass (India, Sastri)., Burkill, H.M. 1985. The useful plants of west tropical Africa, Vol. 2

Flora

Entry for ERAGROSTIS curvula Nees [family POACEAE]
Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora Capensis
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora Capensis, Vol 7, page 310, (1900) Author: (By O. STAPF.)
Names
ERAGROSTIS curvula Nees [family POACEAE], Fl. Afr. Austr. 397, excl. var β;—Steud. Syn. Pl. Glum. i. 271; Durand & Schinz, Consp. Fl. Afr. v. 882.
ERAGROSTIS filiformis Nees [family POACEAE], in Linnæa, vii. 330; Fl. Afr. Austr. 396; Trin. Gram. Suppl. 75, and in Mém. Acad. Pétersb. sér. 6, iv. 76; Durand & Schinz, l.c. 883, not of Link.
ERAGROSTIS thunbergiana Steud. [family POACEAE], l.c. 271.
Poa filiformis Thunb. [family POACEAE], Prod. 21; Fl. Cap. 420, ed. Schult. 112; in Mém. Nat. Mosc. iii. 44, t. 4; Kunth, Enum. i. 345.
Poa curvula Schrad. [family POACEAE], in Goett. Gelehrt. Anzeig. 1821, 2073; and in Schult. Mant. ii. 308; Kunth, l.c.
Poa capensis Steud. [family POACEAE], in Flora, 1829, 488.
Information
perennial, very densely tufted, with numerous closely packed innovation-shoots; culms erect or geniculate, usually slender, simple, 1–2 ft. high, glabrous, smooth, 2–3-noded, internodes usually exserted, uppermost very long; lower sheaths crowded, short, firm, strongly striate, tomentose at the base, gradually less hairy to glabrous upwards, persistent, upper tight, glabrous or rarely hairy, smooth; ligule a fringe of short hairs; blades narrow, linear, long tapering and usually capillary in the upper part, 3 in. to more than 1 ft. long, 1–1 1/2 lin. wide at the base when expanded, more or less filiform-involute or convolute, at least in the upper part, flexuous, somewhat firm, glabrous, very rarely hairy, scabrid on the upper side and all over towards the tips, otherwise smooth; panicle open or contracted, erect or more or less nodding, 3–10 in. long; axis filiform, more or less angular, smooth, at least below; branches solitary, unequally distant or partly subverticillate, first erect, then more or less spreading, finely filiform, flexuous, smooth or almost so, glabrous or sometimes with a few fine hairs at the axils, lower divided from 3–6 lin. above the base; branchlets rather loose, usually contracted, simple or the lowest again divided, smooth, rarely the ultimate divisions scaberulous; pedicels unequal, lateral usually short, rarely up to 2 lin. long; spikelets linear-oblong to oblong, 2–3 lin. by 1 lin., loosely 3–6- (rarely to 8-) flowered, usually dark olive-grey; rhachilla subpersistent, then disarticulating, more or less very minutely hairy; glumes more or less unequal, lanceolate to oblong, acute to subobtuse, thinly membranous to almost hyaline, 1-nerved, or sometimes nerveless, keel if present scaberulous, upper up to 1 lin. long, lower slightly shorter; valves lanceolate-oblong in profile, obtuse or subobtuse, 1 lin. long or slightly longer, membranous, scaberulous above the middle, tips usually hyaline and white, side-nerves fine; pales equal to the valves, obtuse, keels fine, smooth or scaberulous above; anthers 3/8– 1/2 lin. long; grain subellipsoid, obtusely quadrangular, 1/2 lin. long, brown; embryo large. null
Distribution
CENTRAL REGION Prince Albert Div.; near Klaarstroom, on the Great Zwarte Bergen, 2000–3000 ft., Drège! Sutherland Div.; by the Great Riet River, Burchell, 1383! (both approaching var. β). Var. β: Somerset Div.; at Biesjes Fontein near Loots Kloof, 2800 ft., MacOwan, 1610! near Somerset East, Bowker, 148! Graaff Reinet Div.; near Graaff Reinet, 2600 ft., Bolus, 555! Colesberg Div.; near Colesberg, Shaw, 8! 10! Wodehouse Div.; Indwe, Baur, 69!COAST REGION Cape Div.; near Capetown, Burchell, 443! north slopes of the Lions Head, Wolley Dod, 3096! Table Mountain, Ecklon, 950! 952! Milne, 246! Devils Peak, Wilms, 3883! by the railway near Rondebosch, Wolley Dod, 3345! Paarl Div.; Paarl Mountains, 1000–2000 ft., Drège! (approaching var. β). Tulbagh Div.; Piquetberg Road, 400 ft. Schlechter, 7838! Riversdale Div.; by the Zoetemelks River, Burchell, 6632 partly! near the Great Vals River, Burchell, 6545! Albany Div.; at the foot of Bothas Berg, 2000 ft., MacOwan, 1278! Komgha Div.; near Komgha, Flanagan, 948! Stutterheim Div.; grassy hills near the Kabousie River, 2000 ft., Flanagan, 913! Var. β: Worcester Div.; Brand Vley, Rehmann, 2420! Hex River East, Wolley Dod, 3704! “Swellendam and George,” Mund & Maire! (intermediate between the type and var. β). Swellendam Div.? at Kenko River, between Riet Kuil and Hemil en Aarde, below 1000 ft., Zeyher, 1806! Knysna Div.; Plettenberg Bay, Mund & Maire! Uitenhage Div.; near Uitenhage, Ecklon & Zeyher, 452! Harvey, 100! Port Elizabeth Div.; near Port Elizabeth, E.S.C.A. Herb. 133! Alexandria Div.; Zuur Veld, Gill! Albany Div.; Albany Plains, Bowie! Komgha Div.; by the Kei River, Drège! “Kaffraria,” Baur, 276! (with the typical form).EASTERN REGION Natal; Umsinga and base of the Biggars Berg, Buchanan, 93! Var. γ: near Durban, Plant, 57! Gerrard & MacKen, 35! (approaching the type); Umpumulo, 2000 ft., Buchanan, 248! 249a! very common at Riet Vley, 4000 ft., Buchanan, 250; without precise locality, Buchanan, 78! 249! Gerrard, 675! (approaching the type). Var. γ: Natal; Berea, Wood, 5940! Umhlanga, Wood, 6060! Van Reenans Pass, Wood, 7224! Pieter Maritzburg, Wood, 7229!KALAHARI REGION Orange Free State; without precise locality, Hutton! Transvaal; near Lydenberg, Wilms, 1714!SOUTH AFRICA without precise locality, Thunberg! Harvey, 289! 116! MacOwan, 2191! Var. β: Mund! Zeyher, 1806!
Notes
Nees quotes numerous other localities, partly under E. filiformis, partly under E. curvula, from which I have not seen any specimen. As they come, however, entirely within the area indicated by the localities cited above, and as I am not certain as to the variety under which I should have to enumerate them, I preferred omitting them altogether. Drège's specimen from Paarl Mountain, mentioned above, was distributed as Eragrostis capillifolia, Nees. Nees described this plant from Paarl Mountain, and does not mention any other locality; but the description in Nees, Fl. Afr. Aust. 403, does not agree with Drège's specimen, named E. capillifolia in the Kew Herbarium, as Nees described his plant as having hairy lower and scabrid upper internodes, a pyramidal panicle with a very scabrid axis and similar spreading branches. Nevertheless, I am convinced that this species as well as E. subulata, Nees (l.c. 399), from the Gauritz River and the Lange Kloof which I have also not seen, are but states of E. curvula.

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