Muhlenbergia asperifolia |
Muhlenbergia torreyi |
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alkali muhly, or alkali muhly, scratch grass |
ring 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. |
10-40(50) cm, decumbent, usually all the nodes concealed by the sheaths; internodes mostly scabrous or smooth, hispidulous 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. |
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Leaves | strongly basally concentrated, most blades not reaching more than 1/5 of the plant height; sheaths shorter than the internodes, rounded, not keeled, scabridulous or smooth, not becoming spirally coiled when old; ligules 2-5(7) mm, hyaline, acuminate, lacerate, often with lateral lobes; blades 1-3(5) cm long, 0.3-0.9 mm wide, tightly involute or folded, arcuate, scabridulous, midveins and margins not thickened, green, apices somewhat sharp-pointed. |
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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. |
7-21 cm long, 3-15 cm wide, diffuse; primary branches 1-8 cm, diverging 30-90° from the rachises, stiff, naked basally; pedicels 1-8 mm, sometimes appressed to the branches. |
Spikelets | 1.2-2.1 mm, occasionally with 2 or 3 florets. |
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. |
equal, 1.3-2.5 mm, scabridulous, 1-veined, apices acute to acuminate, minutely erose, unawned or awned, awns to 1.1 mm; lemmas 2-3.2(3.5) mm, narrowly elliptic to lanceolate, appressed-pubescent on the basal 1/2 - 3/4 of the margins and midveins, apices scabrous, acuminate, awned, awns 0.5-4 mm; paleas 2-3.2(3.5) mm, narrowly elliptic, intercostal region sparsely pubescent, apices acuminate; anthers 1.2-2.1 mm, greenish. |
Caryopses | 0.8-1 mm, fusiform, brownish. |
1.7-2 mm, fusiform, brownish. |
2n | = 20, 22, 28. |
= 20, 21. |
Muhlenbergia asperifolia |
Muhlenbergia torreyi |
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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; KS; NM; NV; OK; TX; WY
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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 torreyi grows in desert grasslands and open woodlands on sandy mesas, calcareous rock out-crops, and rocky slopes, at elevations of 1000-2450 m. Its range extends from the southwestern United States to northern Mexico. It also grows, as a disjunct, in northwestern Argentina. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 179. | FNA vol. 25, p. 173. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Muhlenbergia | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Muhlenbergia |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | (Nees & Meyen ex Trin.) Parodi | (Kunth) Hitchc. ex Bush |
Web links |
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