Melica frutescens
Melica altissima
tall melica, woody melic, woody melicgrass
Siberian melic, Siberian melicgrass, tall melic
60-200 cm, not forming corms, often branched from the lower nodes;
internodes smooth.
60-250 cm, not forming corms, scabrous below the panicles.
glabrous, sometimes scabridulous, sometimes purplish;
ligules 2.5-9 mm;
blades 2-5 mm wide, abaxial sufaces scabridulous, adaxial surfaces puberulent.
retrorsely scabridulous;
ligules 3-5 mm;
blades to 20 cm long, 5-15 mm wide, flat, lax.
12-40 cm;
branches 3.5-9 cm, appressed, with 5-15 spikelets;
pedicels straight;
disarticulation above 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.
9-18 mm, with 3-5 bisexual florets;
rachilla internodes 1-1.3 mm, not swollen when fresh, not wrinkled when dry.
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.
7-12 mm long, 2-3 mm wide, 5-7-veined;
upper glumes 8-15 mm long, 2.5-3.5 mm wide, 5-7-veined;
lemmas 8-11 mm, glabrous, chartaceous for the distal 1/3 or more, 7-9-veined, sometimes purplish basally, veins inconspicuous, apices rounded to acute, unawned;
paleas about 3/4 the length of the lemmas;
anthers 3, 1-2 mm;
rudiments 2-6 mm, blunt, enclosed in empty lemmas resembling those of the bisexual florets.
about 3 mm.
= 18.
= 18.
Melica frutescens
Melica altissima
Melica frutescens grows from 300-1500 m in the dry hills and canyons of southern California, Arizona, and adjacent Mexico. Boyle (1945) stated that its seeds remain viable longer than those of other North American species of Melica; he gave no information on how long.
(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.)
CA
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
