Muhlenbergia asperifolia |
Muhlenbergia filipes(synonym of Muhlenbergia sericea) |
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alkali muhly, or alkali muhly, scratch grass |
dune hairgrass, purple muhly |
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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. |
70-140 (160) 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, sheaths rounded near the base, rarely becoming fibrous at maturity, not becoming spirally coiled when old; ligules 4-8(10) mm, membranous, firm, strongly decurrent, obtuse; blades 35-100 cm long, 1-3 mm wide, usually 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. |
20-60(70) cm long, 15-30(40) cm wide, longer than wide, diffuse; primary branches 2-20 cm, capillary, diverging 30-100° from the rachises, naked basally, lower branches with 5-20 spikelets; pedicels 4-50 mm, longer than the spikelets, capillary, divergent, stiff or flexible. |
Spikelets | 1.2-2.1 mm, occasionally with 2 or 3 florets. |
3-5 mm, mostly purplish. |
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, (0.3)1-2 mm (excluding the awns), less than 1/2 as long as the lemmas, glabrous; lower glumes 1-veined, awned, awns 0.5-10 mm; upper glumes 1-veined (rarely 3-veined), acute to acuminate, often erose, awned, awns 2-25 mm; lemmas 3-5 mm, lanceolate, calluses shortly pubescent, apices acuminate, with 2 setaceous teeth, teeth 1-5 mm, awned from between the teeth, awns 8-35 mm, clearly demarcated from the lemma bodies; paleas 2-4.5 mm, lanceolate, acuminate, veins usually extending into awns to 2 mm; 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 filipes |
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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 sericea grows in sandy maritime habitats on the barrier islands and in coastal woodlands of the southeastern United States, at elevations of 0-50 m. It is available as an ornamental, sometimes under the name 'Purple Muhly'. (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. filipes | |
Name authority | (Nees & Meyen ex Trin.) Parodi | (Michx.) P.M. Peterson |
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