Melica smithii |
Melica montezumae |
|
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mélique de Smith, Smith oniongrass, Smith's melic, Smith's melic grass, Smith's oniongrass |
Montezuma melic, Montezuma melicgrass |
|
Habit | Plants loosely cespitose, not rhizomatous. | Plants cespitose, not rhizomatous. |
Culms | 60-160 cm, thickened basally, sometimes appearing cormous; internodes sometimes pubescent below the nodes. |
14-100 cm, not forming corms; internodes smooth. |
Sheaths | usually glabrous, sometimes pilose or retrorsely scabrous, particularly at the throat, veins often prominent; ligules 2-4 mm; blades 15-25 cm long, 5-12 mm wide, both surfaces usually scabridulous, glabrous, sometimes the adaxial surfaces with hairs. |
glabrous or scabrous; ligules 2.5-7 mm; blades 1.2-3 mm wide, abaxial surfaces glabrous, scabridulous, adaxial surfaces puberulent. |
Panicles | 12-30 cm; branches 7-11 cm, spreading to reflexed, with 4-7 spikelets, spikelets restricted to the distal portion, axils frequently with brownish pulvini; pedicels straight; disarticulation above the glumes. |
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. |
Spikelets | 12-18 mm, with 3-5 bisexual florets; rachilla internodes 2.5-3 mm. |
6-8 mm, with 1 bisexual floret. |
Lower glumes | 4.5-7 mm long, 1-1.5 mm wide, 1-3-veined; upper glumes 6.5-9 mm long, 1.2-1.8 mm wide, 3-5-veined; lemmas 9.5-12 mm, glabrous or scabrous, 7-veined, apices bifid to emarginate, awned, awns 3-10 mm; paleas about 2/3 the length of the lemmas; anthers 1.3-2.5 mm; rudiments 3.5-6 mm, tapering, resembling the bisexual florets. |
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 | = unknown. |
= 18. |
Melica smithii |
Melica montezumae |
|
Distribution |
ID; MI; MT; OR; SD; WA; WI; WY; AB; BC; ON; QC
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TX |
Discussion | Melica smithii grows in cool, moist woods from British Columbia and Alberta south to Oregon and Wyoming and, as a disjunct, from the Great Lakes region to western Quebec. It often forms colonies in the eastern portion of its range. Its disjunct distribution pattern is unusual among North America's grasses. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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.) |
Source | FNA vol. 24, p. 95. | FNA vol. 24, p. 98. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | (Porter ex A. Gray) Vasey | Piper |
Web links |
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