Melica ciliata
Melica altissima
ciliate melic, hairy melic, hairy melicgrass, silky melic, silky-spike melic
Siberian melic, Siberian melicgrass, tall melic
20-60(100) cm, not forming corms.
60-250 cm, not forming corms, scabrous below the panicles.
glabrous or shortly and sparsely pubescent;
ligules 1-4 mm;
blades 7-15 cm long, 1-4 mm wide, usually involute.
retrorsely scabridulous;
ligules 3-5 mm;
blades to 20 cm long, 5-15 mm wide, flat, lax.
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.
10-20 cm long, 1-2(5) cm wide, cylindrical, pale or purplish;
branches about 3 cm, strongly ascending to appressed, often with 15+ spikelets;
pedicels sharply bent below the spikelets;
disarticulation below the glumes.
6-8 mm, with 1 bisexual floret, sometimes purple-tinged.
7-11 mm, with 1-2(3) bisexual florets.
subequal in length and similar in shape, 7-10.5 mm long, 3-4 mm wide, glabrous, ovate-elliptic, obtuse to acute, ivory or purple, 7-veined;
lemmas 7-11 mm, glabrous, scabridulous, 9-13-veined, scarious, apices acute;
paleas about 2/3 the length of the lemmas;
rudiments 2.5-3 mm, pyriform.
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.
about 3 mm.
=18, 36.
= 18.
Melica ciliata
Melica altissima
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.)
Melica altissima is native to Eurasia. It is grown as an ornamental in North America and is reported to have escaped and become established in Oklahoma and Ontario. In its native region, it grows on the moist soils of shrubby thickets and forest edges, and on rocky slopes. Plants with dark purple glumes and lemmas can be called M. altissima var. atropurpurea Host.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
WA
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
