Flora of North America species comparison

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Melica ciliata

ciliate melic, hairy melic, hairy melicgrass, silky melic, silky-spike melic
Habit Plants cespitose, sometimes shortly rhizomatous.
Culms

20-60(100) cm, not forming corms.
Sheaths

glabrous or shortly and sparsely pubescent;

ligules 1-4 mm;

blades 7-15 cm long, 1-4 mm wide, usually involute.
Panicles

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

6-8 mm, with 1 bisexual floret, sometimes purple-tinged.
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, 36.

Melica ciliata
Distribution
from FNA
WA
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

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. 100.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Meliceae > Melica
Sibling taxa
M. altissima, M. aristata, M. bulbosa, M. californica, M. frutescens, M. fugax, M. geyeri, M. harfordii, M. imperfecta, M. montezumae, M. mutica, M. nitens, M. porteri, M. smithii, M. spectabilis, M. stricta, M. subulata, M. torreyana
Name authority L.
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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