Muhlenbergia asperifolia |
Muhlenbergia repens |
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alkali muhly, or alkali muhly, scratch grass |
creeping muhly, red 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. |
5-42 cm tall, 0.5-1 mm thick, decumbent near the base, forming dense mats; internodes glabrous, slightly nodulose. |
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. |
shorter or longer than the internodes, glabrous; ligules 0.1-1(1.8) mm, membranous, truncate, occasionally lacerate; blades 0.4-6 cm long, 0.5-1.4 mm wide, involute, glabrous, smooth or scabridulous 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. |
1-9 cm long, 0.1-0.6 cm wide, contracted, not dense, usually partially included in the upper leaf sheaths; primary branches 0.2-3 cm, usually closely appressed at maturity, rarely diverging up to 40° from the rachises; pedicels 0.2-3.6 mm, setulose. |
Spikelets | 1.2-2.1 mm, occasionally with 2 or 3 florets. |
2.6-4.2 mm, occasionally with 2 florets. |
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, 1.1-3.6 mm, from 1/2 as long as to equaling the lemmas, light green, 1(2-3)-veined, acute, unawned; lemmas 2.6-3.2(4.2) mm, lanceolate, dark greenish or mottled, glabrous or the calluses and margins appressed-pubescent, hairs to 0.3 mm, apices scabridulous, attenuate, usually mucronate, mucros 0.1-0.3 mm; paleas 2.1-3.3 mm, lanceolate, smooth or scabridulous, acute; anthers 0.7-1.4 mm, yellow to purplish. |
Caryopses | 0.8-1 mm, fusiform, brownish. |
1.1-1.5 mm, ellipsoid to ovoid, brownish. |
2n | = 20, 22, 28. |
= 60, 70-72. |
Muhlenbergia asperifolia |
Muhlenbergia repens |
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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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AZ; CO; NM; TX; UT
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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 repens grows in open, sandy meadows, canyon bottoms, calcareous rocky flats, gypsum flats, and on rolling slopes and roadsides, at elevations of 100-3120 m. Its range extends from the southwestern United States to southern Mexico. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 179. | FNA vol. 25, p. 175. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Muhlenbergia | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Muhlenbergia |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | (Nees & Meyen ex Trin.) Parodi | (J. Presl) Hitchc. |
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