{"id":3981,"date":"2026-10-30T11:24:26","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T11:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/?p=3981"},"modified":"2026-10-30T11:24:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T11:24:28","slug":"a-pink-off-in-the-savanna-eragrostis-and-muhlenbergia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/2026\/10\/30\/a-pink-off-in-the-savanna-eragrostis-and-muhlenbergia\/","title":{"rendered":"A pink-off in the savanna: Eragrostis and Muhlenbergia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I wanted to see whether the C4 fall season grasses had flowered<\/a> and so I visited the Nature Conservancy’s Disney Preserve<\/a> earlier this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, it seems I had come too early this year (perhaps the cold at the beginning of the season had pushed back development<\/a>), and I contented myself with taking macros of the few flowers that had shown up for some of the grasses, most of which were from the genus Anatherum<\/em> (such as A. virginicum<\/em> and A. glomeratum<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was while on the way out after about an hour and a half of walking that I came upon the sight of two pinkish mounds in the middle of the fields. It was a somewhat surreal sight at the time, given that the surroundings were a tamer melange of greens and browns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daring ticks and other nefarious arthropods to attack me, I waded into the field and identified the mound as flowering Eragrostis<\/em> sp (iNaturalist notes Eragrostis refracta<\/em> as being in the area). They stood out quite well against the darker hues of the surrounding plants, and were quite attractive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Eragrostis
Eragrostis<\/em> mounds in the middle of a field, at the Nature Conservancy’s Disney Preserve. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I was thinking that would be the highlight of my trip when I saw an even more beautiful sight later. This time, I found an area with an even larger number of pinkish mounds, but some of the mounds in the distance were much larger than what I would think of as Eragrostis<\/em>. A quick check identified the larger grasses as Muhlenbergia<\/em>, probably Muhlenbergia capillaris<\/em>, while those in the foreground were the aforementioned Eragrostis<\/em> sp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Eragrostis
Eragrostis<\/em> in foreground and marked with yellow arrows, with Muhlenbergia<\/em> in the background. In the Nature Conservancy’s Disney Preserve. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It is possible to separate out the two species from a distance, and not only because of the significant height difference. The flowers of the Muhlenbergia<\/em> tend to be a brighter pink and were denser. The inflorescence were also big enough that one can detect waving of the structures in the wind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the clincher would be to simply look at the spikelets of the flowering stalks. The really tiny Eragrostis<\/em> spikelets have multiple florets (“flowers”) and are laterally compressed, whereas the Muhlenbergia<\/em> spikelets are composed of single florets, with extremely long awns shooting out from them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Muhlenbergia
Muhlenbergia<\/em> spikelets with single floret and long awns. NOTE: spikelets likely from ornamental planting at home.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Eragrostis
Eragrostis<\/em> spikelets with multiple laterally compressed florets in the Nature Conservancy’s Disney Preserve.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Beyond that, the two share some similarities. Both are members of the subfamily Chloridodeae, which has the largest number of C4 grasses. In addition, as befits their status as C4 plants, both are able to withstand arid environments. In terms of their utility as ornamental grasses, my preference is definitely for the Muhlenbergia<\/em>. I have grown Eragrostis<\/em> from seed, and the grown plants tended to look a bit unkempt, although perhaps the location I had chosen was suboptimal (next to the wire mesh of a lanai enclosure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in the end, seeing them in the wild, their masses of pink inflorescence making them stand out boldly against the green and browns of the other plants, made me appreciate both of them all the more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wanted to see whether the C4 fall season grasses had flowered and so I visited the Nature Conservancy’s Disney Preserve earlier this week. Unfortunately, it seems I had come too early this year (perhaps the cold at the beginning of the season had pushed back development), and I contented myself with taking macros of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_siteseo_robots_primary_cat":"none","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,9,8],"tags":[120,54,11],"class_list":["post-3981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grasslands","category-macrophotography","category-species-observations","tag-anatherum","tag-eragrostis","tag-muhlenbergia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3981"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4022,"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3981\/revisions\/4022"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}