Melica porteri |
Melica harfordii |
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Porter melic, Porter's melic, Porter's melicgrass |
Harford melic, Harford's melic, Harford's melic grass, Harford's oniongrass |
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Habit | Plants not or loosely cespitose, shortly rhizomatous. | Plants cespitose, not rhizomatous. | ||||
Culms | 55-100 cm, not forming corms; internodes smooth, basal internodes not thickened. |
35-120 cm, not forming corms; internodes smooth. |
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Sheaths | often scabrous on the keels, otherwise smooth; ligules 1-7 mm; blades 2-5 mm wide, both surfaces glabrous, scabridulous. |
glabrous or pilose, often most pilose at the throat and collar; ligules 0.5-1.5 mm; blades 1.5-4.5 mm wide, abaxial surfaces smooth, adaxial surfaces scabridulous, glabrous or puberulent. |
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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. |
6-25 cm; branches 3-8 cm, appressed, with 2-6 spikelets; pedicels straight; disarticulation above the glumes. |
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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. |
7-20 mm, with 2-6 bisexual florets; rachilla internodes 2-2.4 mm. |
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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. |
obtuse to subacute; lower glumes 4-10 mm long, 1.5-2.5 mm wide, 3-5-veined; upper glumes 5-11 mm long, 1.8-2.5 mm wide, 5-7-veined; lemmas 6-16 mm, hairy, hairs to 0.75 mm on the back, 0.7-1.3 mm on the margins, 9-11-veined, veins inconspicuous, apices mucronate to rounded, usually awned, awns 0.5-3 mm, fragile; paleas about 3/4 as long as to nearly equaling the length of the lemmas; anthers 3, 2.2-4 mm; rudiments 2.5-6 mm, tapering, resembling the bisexual florets. |
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Caryopses | about 5 mm. |
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2n | = 18. |
=18. |
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Melica porteri |
Melica harfordii |
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Distribution |
AZ; CO; KS; NM; TX; UT
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CA; OR; WA; BC
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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 harfordii grows primarily in the Pacific coast ranges from Washington to California, as well as in the Sierra Nevada and a few other inland locations, usually on dry slopes or in dry, open woods. The awns in M. harfordii often escape attention because they do not always extend beyond the lemma. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 24, p. 98. | FNA vol. 24, p. 93. | ||||
Parent taxa | ||||||
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Synonyms | M. harfordii var. viridifolia, M. harfordii var. tenuis, M. harfordii var. minor | |||||
Name authority | Scribn. | Bol. | ||||
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