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Torrey's melic, Torrey's melica, Torrey's melicgrass

Habit Plants densely cespitose, not rhizomatous.
Culms

30-100 cm, not forming corms;

internodes smooth.

Sheaths

glabrous or sparsely pilose, sometimes pilose only at the throat, sometimes scabridulous;

ligules 1-5 mm;

blades 1-2.5 mm wide, sometimes pilose on both surfaces, sometimes scabridulous.

Panicles

6-25 cm;

branches 1-5 cm, usually appressed, occasionally divergent, with 5-37 spikelets;

pedicels straight;

disarticulation above the glumes.

Spikelets

3.5-7 mm, with 1(2) bisexual florets.

Lower glumes

3-5 mm long, about 1 mm wide, 1-5-veined;

upper glumes 3.3-7 mm long, 1-2 mm wide, 3-5-veined;

lemmas 3.5-6 mm, scabridulous, sometimes hairy, distal hairs longer than those below, 7-veined, veins inconspicuous, apices rounded to emarginate, unawned or awned, awns 1-2 mm;

paleas slightly shorter than the lemmas;

anthers 1.5-2.5 mm;

rudiments 0.5-4 mm, clearly distinct from the bisexual florets, shorter than the terminal rachilla internode, truncate to acute.

2n

=18.

Melica torreyana

Distribution
from FNA
CA
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Melica torreyana grows from sea level to 1200 m, in thickets and woods in California. It is common throughout chaparral areas and coniferous forests but, on serpentine soils, grows only in shady locations. The shape and size of the rudiments make M. torreyana unique among the species found in North America. Boyle (1945) obtained vigorous, almost completely sterile hybrids between M. imperfecta and M. torreyana, but found no examples of natural hybrids.

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

Source FNA vol. 24, p. 90.
Parent taxa 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. porteri, M. smithii, M. spectabilis, M. stricta, M. subulata
Name authority Scribn.
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