Why is it called lovegrass?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

October 17, 2003

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Lovegrass is a common name referring to the 300+ species of Eragrostis. Lovegrasses are found in temperate and tropical zones around the world. The name, lovegrass, first appeared in print in 1702, but it is thought much older and may well date to the Middle Ages.

The genus was named by Nathanael Mattaeus von Wolf and published in Genera Plantarum in 1776. According to Gray's Manual of Botany, the botanical name was constructed "from the Greek, Eros, god of love, and agrostis, a grass...."

Lovegrasses are generally clump-forming and many like the purple lovegrass (Eragrostis spectabilis) have graceful, airy panicles (inflorescences) that give the appearance of a haze hovering above the ground. When the caryopses (grass fruit each containing a seed) are ripe, the panicles break easily away from the plant and are tumbled on the wind to disperse the seeds.

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The panicles also break away with the passage of animals or people over the grass. The panicles loosely catch on fur or clothing. But the pieces do not stay put. Caught under a pants leg, the panicle creeps upward with each step. From personal experience, it is an extremely disconcerting sensation like something alive between the skin and the jeans.

And, at least, anecdotally, it is said the name lovegrass, and hence, Eragrostis derived from this tendency; the panicles creeping up under the long skirts and petticoats of women walking through pastures.

Mike Haddock has posted great photographs of purple lovegrass on the Kansas State University Libraries website. The fineness of the panicles are very difficult to photograph. To view Haddock's photographs, click on the link:

http://kswildflower.org/grass_details.php?grassID=23

To enlarge the photographs, click on the images.

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