Plants perennial; cespitose, with innovations, without rhizomes, not glandular. Culms 30-70 cm, erect, sometimes geniculate, glabrous below the nodes. Sheaths usually mostly glabrous, summits hairy, hairs 2-5 mm, never papillose-based; ligules 0.2-0.3 mm; blades (4)8-22 cm long, 1-3.5 mm wide, involute to flat, both surfaces glabrous, margins sometimes with scattered hairs, hairs to 7 mm. Panicles 16-28 cm long, 10-21 cm wide, ovate, open; primary branches 0.6-15 cm, diverging up to 100° from the rachises, naked basally; pulvini hairy; pedicels 1.4-5(7) mm, diverging, wiry, present on all spikelets. Spikelets 2-4.5(5) mm long, 0.5-1(1.3) mm wide, narrowly lanceolate, plumbeous to reddish-purple, with 2-7 florets; disarticulation acropetal, paleas persistent. Glumes broadly ovate to narrowly lanceolate, hyaline, sometimes reddish-purple; lower glumes 0.6-1 mm; upper glumes 1.1-1.4 mm, usually broader than the lower glumes; lemmas 1.2-1.8 mm, broadly ovate, mostly membranous but the distal margins hyaline, lateral veins inconspicuous, apices acute; paleas 1.1-1.7 mm, membranous to hyaline, apices obtuse; anthers 3, 0.2-0.7 mm, reddish-purple. Caryopses 0.5-0.6 mm, obovoid to somewhat prism-shaped, terete to somewhat laterally compressed, sometimes with a weak adaxial groove, finely striate, usually opaque, faintly reddish-brown to whitish. 2n = 40, 80, ca. 108.

Eragrostis lugens grows on sandy dunes and along river banks, at 1-300 m. Its range extends from the southern United States to Peru and Argentina.

Common Name: mourning lovegrass

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Graminoid

General: Cespitose perennials, not rhizomatous with erect, but sometimes geniculate stems 30-70 cm, glabrous below the nodes.

Vegetative: Sheaths glabrous, summits hairy with hairs 2-5 mm, blades 8-22 cm long, 1-3.5 mm wide, involute to flat, glabrous on both sides, margins sometimes with scattered hairs, hairs to 7 mm; ligules less than 0.5 mm.

Inflorescence: Panicles 16-28 cm long, 10-21 cm wide, ovate, open, primary branches 0.5-15 cm, diverging up to 100 degrees from the rachises, basally naked; pulvini hairy; pedicels 1.5-5 mm, diverging, wiry; spikelets 2-4.5 mm long, 0.5-1 mm wide, narrowly lanceolate, reddish-purple with 2-7 florets; disarticulates from the apex toward the base; glumes broadly ovate to narrowly lanceolate, hyaline, sometimes reddish-purple, lower glumes 0.5-1 mm, upper 1-1.5 mm, lemmas 1-2 mm, broadly ovate, mostly membranous with acute apices; caryopses obovoid to prism-shaped, terete to laterally compressed.

Ecology: Found on sandy dunes and on sandy banks from sea level to 1,500 ft (457 m); flowers July-September.

Notes: The distinctive habitat, along with its smaller bunching habit, glandular ring below the nodes, and reddish-purple color of the delicate spikelets all help to distinguish this species. (This diagnosis should be verified...)

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Eragrostis is from Greek eros, love and agrostis, grass, while lugens is thought to come from Latin lugere, to mourn.

Synonyms: None

Editor: SBuckley, 2010