Eragrostis hirsuta (Michx.) Nees

Big Top Lovegrass

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Big Top Lovegrass is a native perennial in the grass family. It can be found throughout Alabama. Big Top Lovegrass grows in sandy pine or pine-oak woodlands, in scrub oak forests, and in disturbed areas. It is a cespitose warn season bunchgrass with fibrous roots. The bases are hardened but lack rhizomes or stolons. The culms are 1-3 feet in height and glabrous. Leaves are linear-lanceolate in outline, flat or slightly involute, and glabrous or with scattered hairs near the base. The leaf sheaths are pubescent with papillose based hairs. Flowers are produced in open terminal panicles. The large panicles can be up to 2/3 to 3/4 the total height of the plant. The small spikelets have 2-6 florets, and are lanceolate in outline and are green or purplish in color. The fruit is a grain. The large panicles of Big Top Lovegrass easily detach and are blown along by the wind, similar in action to tumbleweeds. They often get trapped in large numbers against fences or shrubs. Big Top Lovegrass is occasionally available from native seed companies. It can be used in wildflower meadows and prairies.—A. Diamond.

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Native FACU (NWPL)

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