Muhlenbergia appressa
Muhlenbergia torreyana
appressed muhly, devil's-canyon muhly, spreading littleseed muhly
New Jersey muhly
10-42 cm, erect or decumbent, much branched below;
internodes mostly scabrous, scabrous or hispidulous below the nodes.
30-75 cm, compressed and keeled;
internodes mostly glabrous, strigose on the keels and below the nodes.
usually shorter than the internodes, flattened below, glabrous, scabridulous or smooth, striate;
ligules 1.5-3 mm, hyaline, acute, lacerate, with lateral lobes;
blades 1-5(7) cm long, 0.8-1.6(2) mm wide, flat or involute, scabrous abaxially, pubescent adaxially.
strigose on the keels, basal sheaths much shorter than those above;
ligules 0.3-1 mm, firm, truncate, ciliate;
blades 6-20 cm long, 1-3.5 mm wide, conduplicate, scabrous on both surfaces, tapering to a fine sharp point.
4-23 cm long, 0.5-2 cm wide, usually partially included in the subtending sheaths at maturity;
primary branches 20-45 mm, ascending, closely appressed;
pedicels 1-5 mm, appressed, scabrous;
disarticulation above the glumes.
10-28 cm long, 4-8 cm wide, cylindrical, open;
primary branches 3-10 cm long, 0.05-0.1 mm thick, capillary, diverging 30-40° from the rachises, never appearing fascicled;
pedicels 1.5-9 mm, usually longer than the spikelets.
4-7.5 mm, borne singly.
1.1-2.2 mm, occasionally with 2 florets.
1-2 mm, 1-veined, veins conspicuous, scabrous, and greenish basally, apices obtuse to subacute, often erose;
lemmas 4-6.2(7.5) mm, narrowly lanceolate, terete, mostly smooth, scabrous distally, hairy on the calluses and lower 1/4 of the margins, hairs 0.2-0.3 mm, whitish, lemma bodies not appearing 5-veined, apices acuminate, awned, awns 10-30 mm, straight, scabrous;
paleas 3.8-5.7(7) mm, narrowly lanceolate;
anthers 0.3-1.1 mm, purplish.
equal, 1-2 mm, purplish, scabridulous, 1-veined, acute, unawned;
lemmas 1.1-2.2 mm, lanceolate, plumbeous, scabridulous, apices acute, unawned;
paleas 1-2.1 mm, lanceolate, scabridulous, acute;
anthers 1-1.4 mm, orange-yellow, turning purple at maturity.
1.6-3 mm, narrowly fusiform, brownish to pinkish.
about 1 mm, fusiform, brownish.
spikelets usually present in the axils of the lower leaves.
= unknown.
= unknown.
Muhlenbergia appressa
Muhlenbergia torreyana
Muhlenbergia appressa grows in sandy drainages, canyon bottoms, rocky road cuts, and sandy slopes, at elevations of 20-1750 m. Its range extends from Arizona to Baja California, Mexico. It grows in gramma grasslands, oak-juniper woodlands, and chaparral associations.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Muhlenbergia torreyana grows in perennially wet or moist, usually seasonally inundated habitats such as the sphagnous margins of shallow ponds and seasonally wet depressions, often within pine-oak or oak barrens and at elevations of 0-150 m. Kartesz and Meacham (1999) report that it appears to have been eliminated from New York, Delaware, and Georgia but that, in addition to the locations shown on the map, it grows in Maryland and New Jersey. Hitchcock (1951) reported that it grew in Kentucky, but no specimens documenting its presence there have been located. It is rare even in those states where it is still growing.
Morphologically, Muhlenbergia torreyana resembles the western M. asperifolia but differs in its strigose, strongly compressed, keeled culms and less strongly divergent panicle branches.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
CA
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
MD Biodiversity
