Melica montezumae |
Melica imperfecta |
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Montezuma melic, Montezuma melicgrass |
Coast Range melic, little California melic, little California melica, smallflower melicgrass |
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Habit | Plants cespitose, not rhizomatous. | Plants densely cespitose, not rhizomatous. |
Culms | 14-100 cm, not forming corms; internodes smooth. |
35-120 cm, not forming corms; internodes scabridulous immediately above the nodes. |
Sheaths | glabrous or scabrous; ligules 2.5-7 mm; blades 1.2-3 mm wide, abaxial surfaces glabrous, scabridulous, adaxial surfaces puberulent. |
glabrous or pilose; ligules 0.8-6.5 mm; blades 1-6 mm wide, abaxial surfaces glabrous or puberulent, adaxial surfaces with hairs. |
Panicles | 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. |
5-36 cm; branches 2.5-9 cm, appressed to reflexed, straight or flexuous, with 5-30 spikelets; pedicels not sharply bent; disarticulation above the glumes. |
Spikelets | 6-8 mm, with 1 bisexual floret. |
3-7 mm, with 1(2) bisexual florets; rachilla internodes 0.3-0.6 mm. |
Lower glumes | 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. |
2-5 mm long, 1-2 mm wide, 1-veined; upper glumes 2.5-6 mm long, 1.5-2.5 mm wide, 1-veined; lemmas 3-7 mm, glabrous, sometimes scabrous, with 7+ veins, veins prominent, apices rounded to acute, unawned; paleas almost as long as the lemmas; anthers 1.5-2.5 mm; rudiments 1-4 mm, not resembling the lower florets, longer and thicker than the terminal rachilla internode, truncate to obtuse. |
2n | = 18. |
= 18. |
Melica montezumae |
Melica imperfecta |
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Distribution |
TX |
AZ; CA; NV
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Discussion | 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.) |
Melica imperfecta grows from sea level to 1500 m, on stable coastal dunes, dry, rocky slopes, and in open woods, from California and southern Nevada south to Baja California, Mexico. Plants vary with respect to size, panicle shape, and pubescence, but no infraspecific taxa merit recognition. Boyle (1945) obtained vigorous, almost completely sterile hybrids between M. imperfecta and both M. torreyana and M. californica, but found no examples of natural hybrids. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 24, p. 98. | FNA vol. 24, p. 90. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | M. imperfecta var. refracta, M. imperfecta var. minor, M. imperfecta var. flexuosa | |
Name authority | Piper | Trin. |
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