Melica frutescens |
Melica spectabilis |
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tall melica, woody melic, woody melicgrass |
purple onion grass, showy melic grass |
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Habit | Plants densely cespitose, not rhizomatous. | Plants loosely cespitose, rhizomatous. |
Culms | 60-200 cm, not forming corms, often branched from the lower nodes; internodes smooth. |
45-100 cm, forming corms, corms connected to the rhizomes by a rootlike, 10-30 mm structure, which usually remains attached to the corm; internodes smooth. |
Sheaths | glabrous, sometimes scabridulous, sometimes purplish; ligules 2.5-9 mm; blades 2-5 mm wide, abaxial sufaces scabridulous, adaxial surfaces puberulent. |
usually glabrous, often pilose at the throat and collar; ligules 0.1-2 mm; blades 2-5 mm wide, abaxial surfaces scabridulous over the veins, adaxial surfaces usually glabrous. |
Panicles | 12-40 cm; branches 3.5-9 cm, appressed, with 5-15 spikelets; pedicels straight; disarticulation above the glumes. |
5-26 cm; branches 2-5 cm, usually appressed, sometimes divergent and flexuous, with 2-3 spikelets; pedicels not sharply bent; disarticulation above the glumes. |
Spikelets | 9-18 mm, with 3-5 bisexual florets; rachilla internodes 1-1.3 mm, not swollen when fresh, not wrinkled when dry. |
7-19 mm, with 3-7 bisexual florets, base of the distal florets concealed at anthesis; rachilla internodes 1-2 mm, not swollen when fresh, not wrinkled when dry. |
Glumes | usually less than 1/2 the length of the spikelets; lower glumes 3.5-6.4 mm long, 1.5-3 mm wide, 1-3-veined; upper glumes 5-7 mm long, 2.3-3.5 mm wide, 5-7-veined; lemmas 6-9 mm, glabrous, scabridulous, 5-11-veined, veins inconspicuous, apices rounded to acute, unawned; paleas about 73 the length of the lemmas; anthers 1.5-3 mm; rudiments 1.5-3.5 mm, acute, distinct from the bisexual florets, sometimes surrounded by a small sterile floret similar in shape to the bisexual florets. |
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Lower glumes | 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. |
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2n | = 18. |
= 18. |
Melica frutescens |
Melica spectabilis |
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Distribution |
AZ; CA
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CA; CO; ID; MT; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC
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Discussion | 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 spectabilis grows in moist meadows, flats, and open woods, from 1200-2600 m, primarily in the Pacific Northwest and the Rocky Mountains. It is often confused with M. bulbosa, differing in its shorter glumes, "tailed" corm, and the more marked and evenly spaced purplish bands of its spikelets. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 24, p. 91. | FNA vol. 24, p. 91. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Meliceae > Melica | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Meliceae > Melica |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Bromelica spectabilis | |
Name authority | Scribn. | Scribn. |
Web links |
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