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ear muhly

Habit Plants perennial; rhizomatous, not cespitose.
Culms

10-30(40) cm, decumbent, terete to somewhat compressed-keeled near the base;

internodes scabridulous below the nodes.

Sheaths

about 1/2 as long as the internodes, margins hyaline;

ligules 0.5-2 mm, hyaline, with lateral, 1-2 mm lobes;

blades 0.7-4(6) cm long, 0.5-1.7 mm wide, flat, occasionally folded, tapering, scabrous abaxially, strigulose adaxially, margins and midveins thickened, whitish, apices narrow, often sharp.

Panicles

5-15 cm long, 4-14 cm wide, broadly ovoid, open;

primary branches 2-8 cm, capillary, straight to slightly flexuous, diverging 45-80(100)° from the rachises, never appearing fascicled, naked proximally;

pedicels 1-11 mm, usually longer than the spikelets.

Spikelets

1.5-2.6 mm, occasionally with 2 florets.

Glumes

equal, 0.9-2 mm, 1-veined, usually acute to acuminate, occasionally erose and mucronate, mucros to 0.2 mm;

lemmas 1.5-2.5 mm, lanceolate to oblong-elliptic, plumbeous to purplish, sparsely appressed-pubescent on the lower 1/2 of the margins and midveins, hairs to 0.3 mm, apices acute to obtuse, sometimes shallowly bilobed, mucronate, mucros to 0.3 mm;

paleas 1.5-2.6 mm, lanceolate, glabrous, obtuse to acute;

anthers 1-1.5 mm, yellowish to purplish.

Caryopses

1-1.3 mm, elliptic, brownish.

2n

= unknown.

Muhlenbergia arenacea

Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CO; NM; TX
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Muhlenbergia arenacea grows in sandy flats, plains, alluvial fans, washes, depressions, and alkaline mesas in open grasslands, at elevations of 1000-2200 m. Its range extends from the southwestern United States into northern Mexico.

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

Source FNA vol. 25, p. 181.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Muhlenbergia
Sibling taxa
M. andina, M. appressa, M. arenicola, M. arizonica, M. arsenei, M. asperifolia, M. brevis, M. bushii, M. californica, M. capillaris, M. crispiseta, M. curtifolia, M. cuspidata, M. depauperata, M. diversiglumis, M. dubia, M. dumosa, M. elongata, M. eludens, M. emersleyi, M. expansa, M. filiculmis, M. filiformis, M. fragilis, M. frondosa, M. glabrifloris, M. glauca, M. glomerata, M. jonesii, M. lindheimeri, M. longiligula, M. mexicana, M. microsperma, M. minutissima, M. montana, M. palmeri, M. pauciflora, M. pectinata, M. peruviana, M. polycaulis, M. porteri, M. pungens, M. racemosa, M. ramulosa, M. repens, M. reverchonii, M. richardsonis, M. rigens, M. rigida, M. schreberi, M. sericea, M. setifolia, M. sinuosa, M. sobolifera, M. spiciformis, M. straminea, M. sylvatica, M. tenuiflora, M. tenuifolia, M. texana, M. thurberi, M. torreyana, M. torreyi, M. uniflora, M. utilis, M. villiflora, M. wrightii, M. ×curtisetosa, M. ×involuta
Name authority (Buckley) Hitchc.
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