11. Eragrostis intermedia Hitchc. var. intermedia (plains love grass)

Pl. 146 e, f; Map 599

Plants perennial, forming tufts. Flowering stems 20–90 cm long, erect or ascending, sometimes from spreading bases, glabrous. Leaf sheaths with a line of hairs at the tip, occasionally also hairy along the margins near the tip, otherwise glabrous, the ligule 0.2–0.6 mm long. Leaf blades 5–35 cm long, 2–5 mm wide, flat or more commonly with the margins inrolled, hairy on the upper surface at the base, otherwise usually glabrous (rarely hairy on both surfaces). Inflorescences open, broad panicles 9–40 cm long, ovate in outline, the branches loosely ascending to spreading, the axis and branches roughened, usually with a small tuft of hairs in the axils of the main branches. Spikelets (3–)4–7 mm long, 1–2 mm wide, with slender, mostly long stalks, spreading from the branches, with (2–)5–11 perfect florets. Pattern of disarticulation with the glumes shed first, then the lemmas and fruits, and usually eventually the paleas and joints of the rachilla. Lower glume 0.7–1.8 mm long, lanceolate, roughened along the midnerve. Upper glume 1.2–2.0 mm long, ovate, roughened along the midnerve. Lemmas 1.2–2.2 mm long, ovate, sharply pointed at the tip, rounded to bluntly angled on the back, the lateral nerves faint, roughened along the midnerve toward the tip. Anthers 0.2–0.4 mm long. Fruits 0.6–0.8 mm long, oblong in outline, with a deep, usually broad longitudinal groove, tan to brown. 2n=40, 54, 60, 72, 74, 76, 80, 100, 108, 120. June–October.

Uncommon, mostly in the southern portion of the Ozark Division (Missouri and Kansas south to Georgia and Texas; Mexico, Central America). Openings of mesic to dry upland forests, chert glades, and rarely margins of lakes; also pastures, old fields, roadsides, edges of paths, and open, disturbed areas.

Witherspoon (1975, 1977) recognized four varieties within E. intermedia, based on minor differences in spikelet and inflorescence morphology. The other varieties occur in Mexico and Central America. Harvey (1948) erroneously reported the closely related E. lugens Nees for Missouri, based on two historical specimens from Jackson and Newton Counties, but he correctly annotated these specimens as E. hirsuta. Steyermark (1963) referred other specimens previously identified as E. lugens to E. intermedia. Witherspoon (1975), in his study of the E. intermedia complex, also excluded Missouri from the range of E. lugens. Eragrostis lugens occurs to the south of Missouri (Georgia to Texas, Mexico, Central America, South America) and differs from E. intermedia in its narrower lemmas and spikelets, shallowly grooved or ungrooved fruits, and later flowering period.