Muhlenbergia asperifolia |
Muhlenbergia expansa |
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alkali muhly, or alkali muhly, scratch grass |
cutover muhly, savannah hairgrass |
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Habit | Plants perennial; rhizomatous, not cespitose, occasionally: stoloniferous. | Plants perennial; cespitose, not rhizomatous. |
Culms | 10-60(100) cm, decumbent-ascending, bases somewhat compressed-keeled; internodes glabrous, shiny below the nodes. |
60-100 (150) cm, erect from the base, not conspicuously branched; internodes mostly glabrous, sometimes puberulent below the nodes. |
Sheaths | glabrous, margins hyaline; ligules 0.2-1 mm, firm, truncate, ciliate, without lateral lobes; blades 2-7(11) cm long, 1-2.8(4) mm wide, flat, occasionally conduplicate, smooth or scabridulous abaxially, scabridulous adaxially, margins and midveins not conspicuously thickened, greenish, apices acute, not sharp. |
glabrous or puberulent, rounded basally, becoming fibrous, not flat or spirally coiled, at maturity; ligules 1.8-5(10) mm, membranous, firm, strongly decurrent, obtuse; blades 20-50(80) cm long, 2-4 mm wide, flat or involute, smooth abaxially, scabrous adaxially. |
Panicles | 6-21 cm long, 4-16 cm wide, broadly ovoid, open; primary branches 3-12 cm, capillary, lower branches spreading 30-90° from the rachises, never appearing fascicled; pedicels 3-14 mm, longer than the spikelets. |
15-50(60) cm long, 5-30 cm wide, longer than wide, diffuse; primary branches 2-20 cm, capillary, spreading 30-100° from the rachises, naked basally, lower branches with 5-20 spikelets; pedicels 4-50 mm, longer than the spikelets, capillary, flexible, widely divergent at maturity. |
Spikelets | 1.2-2.1 mm, occasionally with 2 or 3 florets. |
3-5 mm, often purplish, sometimes brownish or bronze. |
Glumes | equal, 0.6-1.7 mm, purplish, scabridulous, particularly on the veins, 1-veined, apices acute; lemmas 1.2-2.1 mm, lanceolate to oblong-elliptic, somewhat plumbeous, glabrous, usually smooth, occasionally scabridulous near the apices, apices acute, unawned or mucronate, mucros to 0.3 mm; paleas 1.2-2.1 mm, lanceolate, glabrous, acute; anthers 1-1.3 mm, greenish-yellow to purplish at maturity. |
subequal, 1.5-3.3 mm, shorter than the florets, glabrous; lower glumes 1-veined, unawned; upper glumes usually 1-veined, rarely 3-veined, acute to acuminate, often erose, sometimes mucronate; lemmas 3-5 mm, lanceolate, calluses shortly pubescent, apices acuminate, without setaceous teeth, usually unawned, if, as rarely, awned, awns 1-3 mm, clearly demarcated from the lemma bodies; paleas 2-4.5 mm, lanceolate, acuminate, unawned; anthers 1.5-2 mm, purple. |
Caryopses | 0.8-1 mm, fusiform, brownish. |
2-2.5 mm, narrowly elliptic, brownish. |
2n | = 20, 22, 28. |
= unknown. |
Muhlenbergia asperifolia |
Muhlenbergia expansa |
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Distribution |
AZ; CA; CO; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; MD; MI; MN; MO; MT; ND; NE; NM; NV; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; SD; TX; UT; WA; WI; WY; AB; BC; MB; ON; SK
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AL; FL; GA; KY; LA; MS; NC; SC; TX; VA
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Discussion | Muhlenbergia asperifolia grows in moist, often alkaline meadows, playa margins, and sandy washes, on grassy slopes, and around seeps and hot springs, at elevations of 55-3000 m. Its geographic range includes northern Mexico. Muhlenbergia asperifolia is morphologically similar to the southeastern M. torreyana, but differs in having glabrous, weakly compressed culms and more widely divergent panicle branches. The caryopses of Muhlenbergia asperifolia are frequently infected by a smut, Tilletia asperifolia Ellis & Everhart, which produces a globose body filled with blackish-brown spores. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Muhlenbergia expansa grows in perennially moist to wet soils in pitcher plant bogs, pine savannahs, and flat-woods, usually in sandy soils and at elevations of 0-300 m. Its primary range is the coastal plain of the south-eastern United States. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 179. | FNA vol. 25, p. 188. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Muhlenbergia | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Muhlenbergia |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | M. capillaris var. trichopodes | |
Name authority | (Nees & Meyen ex Trin.) Parodi | (Poir.) Trin. |
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