Eragrostis spectabilis (Pursh) Steud.

Purple love grass

Purple lovegrass has some pretty strange common names. Sure, the purple part makes sense: when this grass flowers, it creates zillions of tiny purple flowers that resemble a purple mist floating a few inches above the grass. (Is this where “purple haze” comes from?) And “tumblegrass” makes sense too, since the whole cluster of flowers even­tually turns to seeds and detaches, and, nearly weightless, blows around like tumbleweeds. But lovegrass? What’s that about? Turns out that most sources assume the genus name derives from the Greek words for “love” and “grass.” But the Greek era means “earth,” so it may well be that this genus name actually means “earth grass.”

Plants: Appears in low tufts 8–18″ (20–45 cm) tall. Stems, called culms, are cylindrical and unbranched, with 3-4 leaves that mostly cover the stem. It is a type of bunch grass.

Leaves: Leaves are up to 10″ (25 cm) long and ⅛–¼″ (3–8 mm) in width, bluish or grayish green. Typically they are hairless except near the base. Higher up, fine branchlets extend multiply from the main branch, supporting the diminutive flowers.

Flowers: Flowers form a red-purple cloud up to about 1 ⨉ 1½′ (38 ⨉ 45 cm). If you look carefully, the cloud resolves into tiny spikelets on tinier pedicels. Each spikelet is ⅛–¼″ (4–7 mm) long, flat, and about 1/32″ (1 mm) wide. Although most flowers are red-purple, some are olive green. Flowers appear from July to August.

Fruits: “Tumbleweeds” of tiny seeds.

Habitats: Purple lovegrass prefers roadsides, railroad beds, sandy fields, and waste places.

Online References:

Older scientific or horticultural names

Eragrostis spectabilis description by Thomas H. Kent, not updated.

© FloraFinder.org. All rights reserved.