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alkali muhly, or alkali muhly, scratch grass

Peruvian muhly

Habit Plants perennial; rhizomatous, not cespitose, occasionally: stoloniferous. Plants annual; tufted.
Culms

10-60(100) cm, decumbent-ascending, bases somewhat compressed-keeled;

internodes glabrous, shiny below the nodes.

3-27 cm, erect, glabrous.

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.

usually longer than the internodes, smooth or scabridulous;

ligules 1.5-3 mm, membra nous, acute;

blades 1-5 cm long, 0.6-1.5 mm wide, flat to involute, smooth or scabridulous abaxially, sometimes shortly pubescent 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.

2-8 cm long, 0.3-3.4 cm wide, contracted or open;

primary branches 1-5 cm, diverging up to 80° from the rachises;

pedicels 0.4-5 mm, smooth or scabrous.

Spikelets

1.2-2.1 mm, occasionally with 2 or 3 florets.

1.4-4.2 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.

smooth or scabridulous;

lower glumes 0.8-2.8 mm, narrow to broadly lanceolate, 1-veined, acute, often awn-tipped;

upper glumes 0.9-3 mm, wider than the lower glumes, lanceolate, (1)2-3-veined, truncate to acute, 2- or 3-toothed;

lemmas 1.4-4.2 mm, widest near the base, purplish mottled with dark green, hairy on the calluses and lower M of the lemma bodies, hairs to 0.5 mm, apices acuminate, usually bifid and awned from between the teeth, teeth to 0.5 mm, awns 3-10 mm, flexuous, purplish;

paleas 1.3-3.8 mm, narrowly lanceolate, acuminate to subacute;

anthers 0.5-1 mm, purplish to yellowish.

Caryopses

0.8-1 mm, fusiform, brownish.

1-1.6 mm, fusiform, brownish.

2n

= 20, 22, 28.

= 30.

Muhlenbergia asperifolia

Muhlenbergia peruviana

Distribution
from FNA
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
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AZ; NM
[BONAP county map]
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 peruviana grows in open gravelly flats, meadows, rock outcrops, sandy washes, gravelly drainages, rocky slopes, disturbed road cuts, and volcanic flats, in yellow pine forest associations, at elevations of 2000-4600 m. Its primary distribution is to the south of the Flora region, extending from the southwestern United States through Mexico to Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina.

As treated here, Muhlenbergia peruviana includes what are sometimes identified as M. pulcherrima Scribn. ex Beal, M. pusilla Steud., and M. peruviana s. s. There are, however, numerous intermediates among the three extremes represented by these names.

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

Source FNA vol. 25, p. 179. FNA vol. 25, p. 185.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Muhlenbergia Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Muhlenbergia
Sibling taxa
M. andina, M. appressa, M. arenacea, M. arenicola, M. arizonica, M. arsenei, 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
M. andina, M. appressa, M. arenacea, 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. 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
Synonyms M. pulcherrima
Name authority (Nees & Meyen ex Trin.) Parodi (P. Beauv.) Steud.
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