Melica spectabilis |
Melica smithii |
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purple onion grass, showy melic grass |
mélique de Smith, Smith oniongrass, Smith's melic, Smith's melic grass, Smith's oniongrass |
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Habit | Plants loosely cespitose, rhizomatous. | Plants loosely cespitose, not rhizomatous. |
Culms | 45-100 cm, forming corms, corms connected to the rhizomes by a rootlike, 10-30 mm structure, which usually remains attached to the corm; internodes smooth. |
60-160 cm, thickened basally, sometimes appearing cormous; internodes sometimes pubescent below the nodes. |
Sheaths | usually glabrous, often pilose at the throat and collar; ligules 0.1-2 mm; blades 2-5 mm wide, abaxial surfaces scabridulous over the veins, adaxial surfaces usually glabrous. |
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. |
Panicles | 5-26 cm; branches 2-5 cm, usually appressed, sometimes divergent and flexuous, with 2-3 spikelets; pedicels not sharply bent; disarticulation above the glumes. |
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. |
Spikelets | 7-19 mm, with 3-7 bisexual florets, base of the distal florets concealed at anthesis; rachilla internodes 1-2 mm, not swollen when fresh, not wrinkled when dry. |
12-18 mm, with 3-5 bisexual florets; rachilla internodes 2.5-3 mm. |
Glumes | usually less than 1/2 the length of the spikelets; lower glumes 3.5-6.4 mm long, 1.5-3 mm wide, 1-3-veined; upper glumes 5-7 mm long, 2.3-3.5 mm wide, 5-7-veined; lemmas 6-9 mm, glabrous, scabridulous, 5-11-veined, veins inconspicuous, apices rounded to acute, unawned; paleas about 73 the length of the lemmas; anthers 1.5-3 mm; rudiments 1.5-3.5 mm, acute, distinct from the bisexual florets, sometimes surrounded by a small sterile floret similar in shape to the bisexual florets. |
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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. |
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2n | = 18. |
= unknown. |
Melica spectabilis |
Melica smithii |
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Distribution |
CA; CO; ID; MT; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC
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ID; MI; MT; OR; SD; WA; WI; WY; AB; BC; ON; QC
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Discussion | Melica spectabilis grows in moist meadows, flats, and open woods, from 1200-2600 m, primarily in the Pacific Northwest and the Rocky Mountains. It is often confused with M. bulbosa, differing in its shorter glumes, "tailed" corm, and the more marked and evenly spaced purplish bands of its spikelets. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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.) |
Source | FNA vol. 24, p. 91. | FNA vol. 24, p. 95. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Bromelica spectabilis | |
Name authority | Scribn. | (Porter ex A. Gray) Vasey |
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