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

Coast Range melic, little California melic, little California melica, smallflower 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.

35-120 cm, not forming corms;

internodes scabridulous immediately above the nodes.

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 0.8-6.5 mm;

blades 1-6 mm wide, abaxial surfaces glabrous or puberulent, adaxial surfaces with hairs.

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.

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

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.

3-7 mm, with 1(2) bisexual florets;

rachilla internodes 0.3-0.6 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

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 porteri

Melica imperfecta

Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CO; KS; NM; TX; UT
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AZ; CA; NV
[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 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.)

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. 90.
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. californica, M. ciliata, M. frutescens, M. fugax, M. geyeri, M. harfordii, 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
Synonyms M. imperfecta var. refracta, M. imperfecta var. minor, M. imperfecta var. flexuosa
Name authority Scribn. Trin.
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