Melica aristata |
Melica ciliata |
|
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awn melic, bearded melic grass, bearded oniongrass |
ciliate melic, hairy melic, hairy melicgrass, silky melic, silky-spike melic |
|
Habit | Plants cespitose, not rhizomatous. | Plants cespitose, sometimes shortly rhizomatous. |
Culms | 40-120 cm, not forming corms; internodes smooth. |
20-60(100) cm, not forming corms. |
Sheaths | glabrous, scabrous, sometimes sparsely pilose; ligules 2.5-5 mm; blades 5.5-15 cm long, 2-6 mm wide, often sparsely pilose on both surfaces. |
glabrous or shortly and sparsely pubescent; ligules 1-4 mm; blades 7-15 cm long, 1-4 mm wide, usually involute. |
Panicles | 10-26 cm; branches 4-6 cm, appressed or strongly ascending, with 1-4 spikelets per branch; pedicels not sharply bent; disarticulation above the glumes. |
4-8(25) cm, narrowly cylindrical, lax, pale; branches 1.5-4 cm, appressed to ascending, with 3-12(15) spikelets; pedicels sharply bent below the spikelets; disarticulation below the glumes. |
Spikelets | 11-21 mm, with (2)3-5 bisexual florets; rachilla internodes 3.4-3.8 mm. |
6-8 mm, with 1 bisexual floret, sometimes purple-tinged. |
Lower glumes | 9-11 mm long, 1.5-2.5 mm wide, 3-5-veined; upper glumes 11-12 mm long, 2-3 mm wide, 5-7-veined; lemmas 8-13 mm, with 0.3-0.6 mm hairs on the marginal veins, glabrous or with hairs to 0.1 mm elsewhere, 5-7-veined, veins prominent, apices bifid to emarginate, awned from the sinuses, awns 5-12 mm; paleas about 3/4 the length of the lemmas; anthers 2, 2-3 mm; rudiments 2.5-6 mm, tapering, resembling the bisexual florets. |
4-6 mm long, 1.5-2.5 mm wide, ovate, 1-5-veined, acute; upper glumes 6-8 mm long, about 1.5 mm wide, lanceolate, acute to acuminate; lemmas 4-6.5 mm, lanceolate, 7-9-veined, papillose, margins and marginal veins pubescent, hairs 3.5-5 mm, not twisted; rudiments 1-1.7 mm, ovoid, not resembling the bisexual florets. |
Caryopses | 5-6 mm. |
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2n | =18. |
=18, 36. |
Melica aristata |
Melica ciliata |
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Distribution |
CA; KY; NV; OR; WA
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WA |
Discussion | Melica aristata grows from 1000-3000 m in open fir and pine woods. It is restricted to the Flora region, being native from Washington to southern California. It has also been found in Kentucky, possibly as an introduction from contaminated seed. Melica aristata is easily distinguished from most species of Melica by its conspicuous awns. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Melica ciliata is grown as an ornamental in North America and is not known to have escaped. It is native to Europe, northern Africa, and southwestern Asia, where it grows on damp to somewhat dry soils. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 24, p. 95. | FNA vol. 24, p. 100. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Meliceae > Melica | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Meliceae > Melica |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | Thurb. ex Bol. | L. |
Web links |
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