South Africa
Eragrostris echinochloidea Stapf, commonly known as African lovegrass (Afrikaans: Krummelgras, 'crumb grass'') or tick grass is a is a densely tufted perennial grass growing up to 1.2 m high. It has a fibrous root system which mainly develops in the top 50 cm of soil. It has many long and hanging, rigid leaves of varying length (20-40 cm long and 3-5 mm wide), which are bright green to blue green. Leaves are hairless or with soft hairs, the ligule consists of a hairy rim 1 mm long. Leaves are tough to break and have distinctive parallel veins. Inflorescences are narrow panicles up to 30 cm long. The yellow brown seeds are 0.5-1 mm long in the family Poaceae. It is native to seasonally dry tropical areas of South Africa and can also be found in Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia. E. echinochloidea is established in Arizona where it grows on gravel soils and along roadslide and sidewalks from 400-1000m, where it was introduced in the 1940's. It has been found in Maryland, California, and Mexico. Flora of North America Treatment: Plants perennial; cespitose, with innovations. Culms 30-100 cm, erect to geniculate, with narrow, sunken glandular bands. Sheaths sometimes glandular, apices hairy, hairs to 5 mm; ligules 0.4-1 mm; blades 5-21 cm long, 2-6(7) mm wide, flat to involute, with small crateriform glands on the keels and veins, sparsely pilose adaxially. Panicles 4-19 cm long, 0.8-7 cm wide, oblong to ovate, glomerate, spikelets clustered in 1-sided groups; primary branches 0.5-7.5 cm, diverging 10-90° from the rachises, angled, sinuous, glandular; pulvini hairy, hairs to 2 mm; pedicels 0.2-2 mm, stout, erect, without a narrow band or abscission line near the apices. Spikelets 2-5 mm long, 2-3.5 mm wide, broadly ovate, greenish, stramineous to plumbeous, with 7-14 florets; disarticulation basipetal, glumes persistent. Glumes subequal, 1.7-2.2 mm, ovate, membranous, keels with small crateriform glands, apices acute to acuminate; lemmas 1.8-2.3 mm, broadly ovate to orbicular, chartaceous, keels with small crateriform glands, apices acute to obtuse; paleas 1.7-2.2 mm, chartaceous, each side with a broad wing at the base, wings often projecting beyond the lemma bases, apices acute; anthers 3, 0.5-0.9 mm, yellowish. Caryopses 0.8-1.1 mm, ellipsoid, reddish-brown. 2n = 30.
No history as ornamental
