Muhlenbergia asperifolia |
Muhlenbergia uniflora |
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alkali muhly, or alkali muhly, scratch grass |
bog muhly, muhlenbergie uniflore |
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Habit | Plants perennial; rhizomatous, not cespitose, occasionally: stoloniferous. | Plants perennial; loosely matted. |
Culms | 10-60(100) cm, decumbent-ascending, bases somewhat compressed-keeled; internodes glabrous, shiny below the nodes. |
5-45 cm, arising from the bases of old depressed culms, compressed-keeled, developing branches below the lower leaf nodes; internodes mostly glabrous, sometimes minutely 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. |
longer than the internodes, keeled, keels scabridulous, not becoming papery or spirally coiled when old; ligules 0.5-1.5 mm, membranous, truncate to obtuse, erose, without lateral lobes; blades 1-15 cm long, 0.8-2 mm wide, flat to conduplicate, smooth or scabridulous abaxially, hirtellous adaxially, midveins thickened and whitish proximally. |
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. |
2-20 cm long, (0.2)2.5-6 cm wide, diffuse; primary branches 0.4-6 cm long, about 0.1 mm thick, ascending, diverging 10-60° from the rachises, naked basally; pedicels 0.2-7 mm, glabrous. |
Spikelets | 1.2-2.1 mm, occasionally with 2 or 3 florets. |
1.3-2.1 mm, dark purplish to plumbeous, 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. |
equal, 0.4-1.3 mm, glabrous, 1-veined, apices scabrous, acute to obtuse, sometimes erose or notched, unawned; lemmas 1.2-2 mm, oblong-elliptic, dark purplish to plumbeous, glabrous, faintly 3-veined, apices acute to obtuse, unawned; paleas 1.3-2.1 mm, oblong-elliptic, glabrous, acute to obtuse; anthers 0.6-0.9 mm, dark purple. |
Caryopses | 0.8-1 mm, fusiform, brownish. |
0.6-0.8 mm, ovoid, brownish. |
2n | = 20, 22, 28. |
= 42. |
Muhlenbergia asperifolia |
Muhlenbergia uniflora |
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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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CT; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; NH; NJ; NY; OR; PA; RI; VT; WI; BC; NB; NL; NS; ON; QC
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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 uniflora grows in bogs, wet meadows, and lake shores in sandy or peaty, often acidic, soils, at elevations of 0-650 m. It is native to eastern North America, but was collected once in British Columbia, probably having been introduced from ship ballast, and was recently collected from a commercial cranberry bog in Oregon. The collection from Texas may also be an introduction. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 179. | FNA vol. 25, p. 181. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Muhlenbergia | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Muhlenbergia |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | (Nees & Meyen ex Trin.) Parodi | (Muhl.) Fernald |
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