Eragrostis secundiflora J. Presl ssp. oxylepis (Torr.) S.D. Koch

Red Lovegrass

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Red Lovegrass is a native perennial in the grass family. It can be found in the southern half of Alabama. Red Lovegrass grows on dunes, on beaches, and on roadsides and other disturbed areas. It is usually found on sandy soils. Red Lovegrass is a cespitose warn season bunchgrass with fibrous roots. The culms are erect, 1-1.5 feet in height, glabrous, and often blue-green in color. Leaves are lanceolate in outline, flat or involute, glabrous below, glabrous or rough to the touch above, occasionally with long sparse hairs near the base. The leaf sheaths are hairy at the apex. Flowers are produced in oblong terminal panicles. The panicles are green to light purple-red in color. The flattened spikelets have 10-30 florets, and are lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate in outline. The fruit is a grain. The seed of Red Lovegrass are reddish-brown in color and larger than those of our other Lovegrass species. Red Lovegrass is sometimes available as seed. It is both drought and salt tolerant. It can be used for erosion control and restoration plantings on sandy soils. In Texas it is sometimes used for highway rights-of-way plantings. Red Lovegrass is considered of low value for livestock forage or wildlife.—A. Diamond.

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Native

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