Muhlenbergia asperifolia
Muhlenbergia thurberi
alkali muhly, or alkali muhly, scratch grass
Thurber's muhly
10-60(100) cm, decumbent-ascending, bases somewhat compressed-keeled;
internodes glabrous, shiny below the nodes.
12-36 cm tall, 0.3-0.5 mm thick, often clumped, usually erect, somewhat decumbent at the base;
internodes mostly or completely glabrous, sometimes strigose below the nodes.
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 than the internodes, hirtellous near the margins;
ligules 0.9-1.2 mm, membranous, truncate to obtuse, erose;
blades 0.2-3.7 cm long, 0.2-1 mm wide, tightly involute, straight to arcuate, smooth or scabridulous abaxially, hirtellous adaxially.
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.
0.7-5.5 cm long, 0.2-0.7 cm wide, contracted, not dense, sometimes interrupted below;
primary branches 0.4-1.8 cm, appressed;
pedicels 0.1-4 mm.
1.2-2.1 mm, occasionally with 2 or 3 florets.
2.6-4 mm.
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, 1.6-3 mm, 1-veined, scabridulous on the veins, acute, unawned;
lemmas 2.6-4 mm, lanceolate, hairy on the lower 3/4, hairs to 1.2 mm, tawny, apices acuminate, unawned or awned, awns to 1 mm;
paleas 2.6-4 mm, lanceolate, intercostal region tawny pubescent;
anthers 2.1-2.3 mm, yellowish-purple.
0.8-1 mm, fusiform, brownish.
2-2.2 mm, fusiform, light brownish.
= 20, 22, 28.
= unknown.
Muhlenbergia asperifolia
Muhlenbergia thurberi
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 thurberi usually grows in moist soil in seeps near canyon cliffs, sandstone slopes, and rocky ledges, at elevations of 1350-2300 m. The species appears to be restricted to the southwestern United States. It flowers from July to September.
Muhlenbergia thurberi resembles M. curtifolia, but differs in its tightly involute blades, and longer anthers and ligules. The two species have been found growing within 50 m of each other in Apache County, Arizona, but in different habitats, M. curtifolia growing in a damp drainage areas whereas M. thurberi grew near a moist but dryer canyon cliff.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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