Melica montezumae |
Melica torreyana |
|
---|---|---|
Montezuma melic, Montezuma melicgrass |
Torrey's melic, Torrey's melica, Torrey's melicgrass |
|
Habit | Plants cespitose, not rhizomatous. | Plants densely cespitose, not rhizomatous. |
Culms | 14-100 cm, not forming corms; internodes smooth. |
30-100 cm, not forming corms; internodes smooth. |
Sheaths | glabrous or scabrous; ligules 2.5-7 mm; blades 1.2-3 mm wide, abaxial surfaces glabrous, scabridulous, adaxial surfaces puberulent. |
glabrous or sparsely pilose, sometimes pilose only at the throat, sometimes scabridulous; ligules 1-5 mm; blades 1-2.5 mm wide, sometimes pilose on both surfaces, sometimes 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. |
6-25 cm; branches 1-5 cm, usually appressed, occasionally divergent, with 5-37 spikelets; pedicels straight; disarticulation above the glumes. |
Spikelets | 6-8 mm, with 1 bisexual floret. |
3.5-7 mm, with 1(2) 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. |
3-5 mm long, about 1 mm wide, 1-5-veined; upper glumes 3.3-7 mm long, 1-2 mm wide, 3-5-veined; lemmas 3.5-6 mm, scabridulous, sometimes hairy, distal hairs longer than those below, 7-veined, veins inconspicuous, apices rounded to emarginate, unawned or awned, awns 1-2 mm; paleas slightly shorter than the lemmas; anthers 1.5-2.5 mm; rudiments 0.5-4 mm, clearly distinct from the bisexual florets, shorter than the terminal rachilla internode, truncate to acute. |
2n | = 18. |
=18. |
Melica montezumae |
Melica torreyana |
|
Distribution |
TX |
CA
|
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 torreyana grows from sea level to 1200 m, in thickets and woods in California. It is common throughout chaparral areas and coniferous forests but, on serpentine soils, grows only in shady locations. The shape and size of the rudiments make M. torreyana unique among the species found in North America. Boyle (1945) obtained vigorous, almost completely sterile hybrids between M. imperfecta and M. torreyana, 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 | ||
Name authority | Piper | Scribn. |
Web links |