Melica montezumae |
Melica porteri |
|||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Montezuma melic, Montezuma melicgrass |
Porter melic, Porter's melic, Porter's melicgrass |
|||||
Habit | Plants cespitose, not rhizomatous. | Plants not or loosely cespitose, shortly rhizomatous. | ||||
Culms | 14-100 cm, not forming corms; internodes smooth. |
55-100 cm, not forming corms; internodes smooth, basal internodes not thickened. |
||||
Sheaths | glabrous or scabrous; ligules 2.5-7 mm; blades 1.2-3 mm wide, abaxial surfaces glabrous, scabridulous, adaxial surfaces puberulent. |
often scabrous on the keels, otherwise smooth; ligules 1-7 mm; blades 2-5 mm wide, both surfaces glabrous, scabridulous. |
||||
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. |
13-25 cm; branches 1-9 cm, straight and appressed or flexible and ascending to strongly divergent, with 1-12 spikelets; pedicels sharply bent below the spikelets; disarticulation below the glumes. |
||||
Spikelets | 6-8 mm, with 1 bisexual floret. |
8-16 mm long, 1.5-5 mm wide, parallel-sided when mature, with 2-5 bisexual florets; rachilla internodes 1.9-2.1 mm. |
||||
Glumes | green, pale, or purplish-tinged; lower glumes 3.5-6 mm long, 2-3 mm wide, 3-5-veined; upper glumes 5-8 mm long, 2-3 mm wide, 5-veined; lemmas 6-10 mm, glabrous, chartaceous on the distal 1/3, 5-11-veined, veins conspicuous, apices rounded to acute, unawned; paleas about 2/3 the length of the lemmas; anthers 1-2.5 mm; rudiments 1.8-5 mm, acute to acuminate, resembling the bisexual florets. |
|||||
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. |
|||||
2n | = 18. |
= 18. |
||||
Melica montezumae |
Melica porteri |
|||||
Distribution |
TX |
AZ; CO; KS; NM; TX; UT
|
||||
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 porteri grows on rocky slopes and in open woods, often near streams. It grows from Colorado and Arizona to central Texas and northern Mexico. Living plants are sometimes confused with Bouteloua curtipendula; the similarity is superficial. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||
Key |
|
|||||
Source | FNA vol. 24, p. 98. | FNA vol. 24, p. 98. | ||||
Parent taxa | ||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Name authority | Piper | Scribn. | ||||
Web links |