Muhlenbergia asperifolia |
Muhlenbergia glabriflora(synonym of Muhlenbergia glabrifloris) |
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alkali muhly, or alkali muhly, scratch grass |
inland muhly |
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Habit | Plants perennial; rhizomatous, not cespitose, occasionally: stoloniferous. | Plants perennial; rhizomatous, not cespitose. |
Culms | 10-60(100) cm, decumbent-ascending, bases somewhat compressed-keeled; internodes glabrous, shiny below the nodes. |
30-100 cm tall, 0.5-2 mm thick, herbaceous, ascending or decumbent, bushy and much branched above; internodes smooth and shiny for most of their length, scabridulous or strigulose 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, margins hyaline; ligules 0.5-1.5 mm, membranous, truncate, lacerate-ciliolate; blades 3-8 cm long, (1.5)2-4 mm wide, flat, glabrous. |
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. |
2-6.5 cm long, 0.2-0.8 cm wide, lobed, dense; branches 0.3-2.5 cm, ascending, closely appressed; axillary panicles common, partly included in or exserted from the subtending sheaths; pedicels 0.3-2.2 mm, scabrous to strigulose. |
Spikelets | 1.2-2.1 mm, occasionally with 2 or 3 florets. |
2.2-3.5 mm. |
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, 1.5-3.5 mm, from 3/4 as long as to longer than the lemmas, smooth or scabridulous near the apices, 1-veined; upper glumes acuminate, acute, unawned or awned, awns to 1.2 mm; lemmas 2.2-3.1 mm, narrowly lanceolate, shiny, stramineous or purplish, usually completely glabrous (rarely with a few appressed hairs), apices scabridulous, acuminate, unawned; paleas 2.2-3.1 mm, narrowly lanceolate; anthers 0.3-0.5 mm, yellow to purplish. |
Caryopses | 0.8-1 mm, fusiform, brownish. |
1.2-1.4 mm, fusiform, brown. |
2n | = 20, 22, 28. |
= 40. |
Muhlenbergia asperifolia |
Muhlenbergia glabriflora |
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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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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 glabrifloris grows at the edge of dry forests, in prairies, thickets, and along roadsides in pine and oak associations, at elevations of 20-400 m. It is restricted to the southern portion of the central contiguous United States. It resembles M. frondosa, but differs from that species in its glabrous lemmas and shorter caryopses (1.2-1.4 mm rather than 1.6-1.9 mm). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 179. | FNA vol. 25, p. 156. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Muhlenbergia | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Muhlenbergia |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | (Nees & Meyen ex Trin.) Parodi | Scribn. |
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