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Porter melic, Porter's melic, Porter's melicgrass

California melic, California melicgrass

Habit Plants not or loosely cespitose, shortly rhizomatous. Plants densely cespitose, not rhizomatous.
Culms

55-100 cm, not forming corms;

internodes smooth, basal internodes not thickened.

50-130 cm, not forming corms;

lower nodes strigose;

internodes usually smooth, sometimes puberulent below the nodes, lower 2-3 internodes usually swollen.

Sheaths

often scabrous on the keels, otherwise smooth;

ligules 1-7 mm;

blades 2-5 mm wide, both surfaces glabrous, scabridulous.

glabrous or pilose;

ligules 1.5-4 mm;

blades 1.5-5 mm wide, strigose on both surfaces.

Panicles

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.

4-30 cm;

branches 3-6 cm, appressed, straight, with 4-15 spikelets;

pedicels straight;

disarticulation above the glumes.

Spikelets

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.

5-15 mm, with 2-5 bisexual florets;

rachilla internodes 1.1-1.6 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

3.5-12 mm long, 2.5-3 mm wide, 3-5-veined;

upper glumes 5-13 mm long, 2-2.5 mm wide, 5-7-veined;

lemmas 5-9 mm, glabrous, smooth to scabrous, 7-9-veined, veins inconspicuous, apices rounded to broadly acute, unawned;

paleas about 3/4 the length of the lemmas;

anthers 3, 1.8-3 mm;

rudiments 1.4-3 mm, clublike, not resembling the bisexual florets, truncate to acute.

2n

= 18.

= 18.

Melica porteri

Melica californica

Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CO; KS; NM; TX; UT
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from USDA
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

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.)

Melica californica grows from sea level to 2100 m, in a wide range of habitats, from dry, rocky, exposed hillsides to moist woods. Its range extends from Oregon to California. It differs from M. bulbosa in its more obtuse spikelets and less strongly colored lemmas, as well as in not having corms.

Melica californica var. nevadensis Boyle supposedly differs from var. californica in having shorter spikelets (averaging 8, rather than 10, mm), more acute glumes and lemmas, blunter rudiments, and in being restricted to the lower Sierra Nevada; the two varieties intergrade, both morphologically and geographically.

Boyle (1945) obtained vigorous sterile hybrids from crosses between M. californica and M. imperfecta, but found no natural hybrids.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Key
1. Panicle branches flexible, ascending to strongly divergent; glumes purplish-tinged
var. laxa
1. Panicle branches straight, appressed; glumes green or pale
var. porteri
Source FNA vol. 24, p. 98. FNA vol. 24, p. 93.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Meliceae > Melica Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Meliceae > Melica
Sibling taxa
M. altissima, M. aristata, M. bulbosa, M. californica, M. ciliata, M. frutescens, M. fugax, M. geyeri, M. harfordii, M. imperfecta, M. montezumae, M. mutica, M. nitens, M. smithii, M. spectabilis, M. stricta, M. subulata, M. torreyana
M. altissima, M. aristata, M. bulbosa, M. ciliata, M. frutescens, M. fugax, M. geyeri, M. harfordii, M. imperfecta, M. montezumae, M. mutica, M. nitens, M. porteri, M. smithii, M. spectabilis, M. stricta, M. subulata, M. torreyana
Subordinate taxa
M. porteri var. laxa, M. porteri var. porteri
Name authority Scribn. Scribn.
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