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Eragrostis curvula

Common name:	Weeping Love Grass	Family:	Gramineae
Author:	(Schrad.)Nees.	Botanical references:	200
Synonyms:
Known Hazards:	None known
Range:	S. Africa - north to Zimbabwe and the Transvaal.
Habitat:	Not known
Edibility Rating (1-5):	1	Medicinal Rating (1-5):	0

Other Possible Synonyms:	From various places across the web, may not be correct. See below.
	E. chloromelas[B,G] E. curvula var. conferta[B] E. jeffreysii[G] E. robusta[G] Poa curvula[G]
Other Common Names:	From various places around the Web, may not be correct. See below.
	Weeping Love Grass [B], Weeping Lovegrass [P,FEIS],
Systematics:	From a USDA Plants Database
	Order: Cyperales. Renamed to Poaceae -- Grass family
Other Range Info:	From the Ethnobotany Database
	Lesotho

Physical Characteristics

An evergreen perennial growing to 1.2m. It is hardy to zone 7 and is not frost tender. It is in leaf all year, in flower from August to October. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Apomictic (reproduce by seeds formed without sexual fusion) and wind. The plant is self-fertile. We rate it 1/5 for edibility and 0/5 for medicinal use.

The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils and requires well-drained soil. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It cannot grow in the shade. It requires moist soil.

Edible Uses

Seed.

Seed - cooked[269]. Used as a grain[269].

Medicinal Uses

Disclaimer

None known

Other Uses

Basketry Biomass Soil stabilization.

A deep-rooted plant, it is considered excellent for protecting terraces and for grassing water channels and is valuable for erosion control[269].
In Lesotho, the plant is used to make baskets, brooms, hats, ropes, and candles[269].

Cultivation details

Easily grown in most well-drained soils so long as the plant is in a hot, dry, sunny position[200]. Weeping love grass is reported to tolerate an annual precipitation of 31 to 163cm, an annual temperature range of 5.9 to 26.2° C and a pH in the range of 5.0 to 8.2[269]. It is adapted to semi-arid and desert areas and sandy soils, growing well on low fertility soils[269]. A very drought-resistant plant, but it lacks hardiness for more northern areas[269]. It grows well on a wide range of well-drained soils, especially sandy loams moderately frost-resistant in southern areas[269].
Plants are hardy to about -5° c and succeed outdoors in the milder areas of Britain[200].
The roots contain pyrocatechol, suggesting an explanation for the plants resistance to nematodes[269].
The species and its varieties are apomictic (producing seed without fertilization) although sexual plants have occasionally been found[269].

Propagation

Seed - sow early spring in a greenhouse and only just cover the seed. Germination should take place within 2 weeks. When they are large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and plant them out after the last expected frosts.
The seed can also be sown in situ in mid to late spring, though in a cool summer it may fail to ripen many seeds[162].
Division in spring.

Cultivars

'A-67': Developed in Arizona from Tanzanian seed, this form grows vigorously, is leafy, densely tufted, long-lived, with extensive root system and long, lax leaves forage and seed production is higher than for Lehmann or Boer lovegrass and this form is more cold tolerant than those species[269].It is used for range, pasture and soil protection on a wide range of soil textures where annual precipitation exceeds 40 cm[269].

Suppliers

For more details of plant suppliers please see our Suppliers Page which lists many more places to look.

Web References

[E] Ethnobotany Data (common names, uses, countries) from the Ethnobotany Database.
[B] Data (Latin & Common names, other references) from the BONAP's Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
[FAO] Data (Description, Habitat, Location and Use) from the FAO's Grassland Index.
[G] Data (Common Names, Uses, Distribution) from the USDA/ARS NPGS's GRIN taxonomic database.
[P] Data. (uses, distribution, wetland) from the USDA'a Plants database.
[HEC] Use, Folk Medicine, etc. from Handbook of Energy Crops by James Duke
[FEIS] Data (Uses, Ecology, Fire Effects) from the USDA Forestry Service Fire Effects Information System.

See the PFAF Links Pages for other sources.

Also try Photos and info from the The Plants Database which has 14,000 images.

References

[162] Grounds. R. Ornamental Grasses. Christopher Helm 1989 ISBN 0-7470-1219-9
Cultivation details of many of the grasses and bamboos. Well illustrated.

[200] Huxley. A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. MacMillan Press 1992 ISBN 0-333-47494-5
Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.

[269] Duke. J. Handbook of Energy Crops - 1983
Published only on the Internet, excellent information on a wide range of plants.

Readers Comments

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Plant information taken from the Plants For A Future - Species Database. Copyright (c) 1997-2003.
WEB search engine by Rich Morris - Home Page- Contact Info
Blagdon Cross, Ashwater, Beaworthy, Devon, EX21 5DF, UK.
Website: www.pfaf.org Phone: 0845 458 4719/_44(0) 1208 872963

This page (UK) http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/cgi-bin/pfaf/arr_html?Eragrostis+curvula
This page (US) http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/cgi-bin/arr_html?Eragrostis+curvula

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