Melica ciliata |
Melica montezumae |
|
---|---|---|
ciliate melic, hairy melic, hairy melicgrass, silky melic, silky-spike melic |
Montezuma melic, Montezuma melicgrass |
|
Habit | Plants cespitose, sometimes shortly rhizomatous. | Plants cespitose, not rhizomatous. |
Culms | 20-60(100) cm, not forming corms. |
14-100 cm, not forming corms; internodes smooth. |
Sheaths | glabrous or shortly and sparsely pubescent; ligules 1-4 mm; blades 7-15 cm long, 1-4 mm wide, usually involute. |
glabrous or scabrous; ligules 2.5-7 mm; blades 1.2-3 mm wide, abaxial surfaces glabrous, scabridulous, adaxial surfaces puberulent. |
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. |
5-25 cm; branches 1-5 cm, appressed to reflexed, straight, with 2-9 spikelets; pedicels sharply bent below the spikelets; disarticulation below the glumes. |
Spikelets | 6-8 mm, with 1 bisexual floret, sometimes purple-tinged. |
6-8 mm, with 1 bisexual floret. |
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. |
5.5-8 mm long, 1.8-3 mm wide, 5-veined; upper glumes 5-8 mm long, 0.7-1.5 mm wide, 3-5-veined; lemmas 4.5-8 mm, 9-15-veined, veins prominent, tuberculate, proximal portion with flat, twisted hairs, distal portion glabrous, chartaceous, apices emarginate to acute, unawned; paleas about 3/4 the length of the lemmas; anthers 1.5-3 mm; rudiments 2-3 mm, obovoid or obconic, clublike, not resembling the bisexual florets. |
2n | =18, 36. |
= 18. |
Melica ciliata |
Melica montezumae |
|
Distribution |
WA |
TX |
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.) |
Melica montezumae grows primarily in shady locations in the mountains of western Texas and adjacent Mexico. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 24, p. 100. | FNA vol. 24, p. 98. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | L. | Piper |
Web links |