Melica bulbosa |
Melica ciliata |
|
---|---|---|
bulbous oniongrass, onion grass, western onion grass |
ciliate melic, hairy melic, hairy melicgrass, silky melic, silky-spike melic |
|
Habit | Plants loosely cespitose, rhizomatous. | Plants cespitose, sometimes shortly rhizomatous. |
Culms | 29-100 cm, forming corms, corms almost sessile on the connecting rhizomes; internodes scabridulous above the nodes. |
20-60(100) cm, not forming corms. |
Sheaths | usually scabridulous, sometimes sparsely pilose; ligules 2-6 mm; blades 1.5-5 mm wide, abaxial surfaces scabridulous, adaxial surfaces with hairs. |
glabrous or shortly and sparsely pubescent; ligules 1-4 mm; blades 7-15 cm long, 1-4 mm wide, usually involute. |
Panicles | 7-30 cm; branches 2-6.5 cm, appressed, usually straight, with 1-5 spikelets; pedicels straight; 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 | 6-24 mm, with 4-7 bisexual florets, base of the distal florets concealed at anthesis; rachilla internodes 1-2 mm, not swollen when fresh, not wrinkled when dry. |
6-8 mm, with 1 bisexual floret, sometimes purple-tinged. |
Glumes | from (1/2)2/3 as long as to equaling the spikelets; lower glumes 5.5-10.5 mm long, 2-3 mm wide, 3-5-veined; upper glumes 6-14 mm long, 2.3-3.5 mm wide, 5-7-veined; lemmas 6-12 mm, glabrous, smooth or scabrous, 7-11-veined, veins prominent, apices emarginate to acute, unawned; paleas about 3/4 the length of the lemmas; anthers 3, 1.5-4 mm; rudiments 1.5-5 mm, truncate to tapering, sometimes resembling the bisexual florets in shape. |
|
Lower glumes | 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. |
|
2n | =18. |
=18, 36. |
Melica bulbosa |
Melica ciliata |
|
Distribution |
CA; CO; ID; MT; NV; OR; SD; TX; UT; WA; WY; BC; SK
|
WA |
Discussion | Melica bulbosa grows from 1370-3400 m, mostly in open woods on dry, well-drained slopes and along streams. It is restricted to the western half of the Flora region. Two records from Texas, in Jeff Davis and Sutton counties, have not been verified. Melica bulbosa differs from M. spectabilis in its sessile corm and longer glumes. In addition, in M. bulbosa the spikelets have purplish bands which appear to be concentrated towards the apices; in M. spectabilis the bands appear more regularly spaced. It differs from M. californica in its more narrowly acute spikelets, more strongly colored lemmas, and lack of corms, and from M. fugax in not having swollen rachilla internodes. (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. 91. | FNA vol. 24, p. 100. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Meliceae > Melica | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Meliceae > Melica |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | M. bulbosa var. intonsa, M. bulbosa var. inflata, Bromelica bulbosa | |
Name authority | Geyer ex Porter & J.M. Coult. | L. |
Web links |
|