Melica ciliata
Melica fugax
ciliate melic, hairy melic, hairy melicgrass, silky melic, silky-spike melic
little melic, little oniongrass, small melic grass, small onion grass
20-60(100) cm, not forming corms.
10-60 cm, forming corms;
internodes smooth or scabridulous.
glabrous or shortly and sparsely pubescent;
ligules 1-4 mm;
blades 7-15 cm long, 1-4 mm wide, usually involute.
scabridulous to scabrous;
ligules 0.5-2.6 mm;
blades 1.2-5 mm wide, sometimes pilose on both surfaces.
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.
4.5-18 cm;
branches 0.8-4 cm, appressed to ascending, with 1-5 spikelets;
pedicels straight.
6-8 mm, with 1 bisexual floret, sometimes purple-tinged.
4-17 mm, with 2-5 bisexual florets;
rachilla internodes 2.1-2.3 mm, swollen when fresh, wrinkled when dry;
disarticulation above the 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.
3-5 mm long, 1.5-2.5 mm wide, 1-3-veined;
upper glumes 3.5-7 mm long, 2.5-3.5 mm wide, 5-veined;
lemmas 4-7 mm, glabrous or scabrous, 4-11-veined, veins inconspicuous, apices rounded to acute, unawned;
paleas almost as long as the lemmas;
anthers 3, 1-2 mm;
rudiments 1.5-3.5 mm, tapering, resembling the bisexual florets.
=18, 36.
=18.
Melica ciliata
Melica fugax
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 fugax grows at elevations to 2200 m on dry, open flats, hillsides, and woods, from British Columbia to California and east to Idaho and Nevada. It is usually found on soils of volcanic origin, and rarely below 1300 m. Melica fugax is often confused with M. bulbosa, but its rachilla internodes are unmistakable and unique among the species in the Flora region, being swollen when fresh and wrinkled when dry. One specimen, C.L. Hitchcock 15521 [WTU 114265] from Elmore County, Idaho, appears to be a hybrid. It has shrunken caryopses and combines the rachilla of M. fugax with the lemma pubescence, size, and overall appearance of M. subulata, but lacks corms.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
- Local floras:
BC, 
CA, 
OR, 
WA - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos,
Flora NW, 
PNW Herbaria 
WildflowerSearch
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USDA Plants Database- LBJ Wildflower Center
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