Muhlenbergia asperifolia |
Muhlenbergia ×involuta |
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alkali muhly, or alkali muhly, scratch grass |
canyon muhly, 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. |
60-140 cm, erect; internodes puberulent or glabrous for most of their length, 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. |
shorter or longer than the internodes, smooth or scabridulous, tightly imbricate, yellowish-brown, basal sheaths laterally compressed, keeled, not becoming spirally coiled when old; ligules 3-12 mm, firm and brown basally, membranous distally, acute; blades 10-45 cm long, 1.6-5 mm wide, tightly folded, scabrous abaxially, hirsute 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. |
18-40 cm long, 1.5-7 cm wide, loosely contracted to open, not dense; branches 1-10 cm, ascending or diverging up to 60° from the rachises, stiff, naked basally; pedicels 2-8 mm, hirtellous. |
Spikelets | 1.2-2.1 mm, occasionally with 2 or 3 florets. |
3-4.2 mm, yellowish to 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, 2-3 mm, exceeded by the florets, scabridulous or smooth, 1-veined, acute or obtuse, unawned; lemmas 3-4.2 mm, lanceolate, glabrous or appressed-pubescent on the lower 1/4 of the margins, apices acute to obtuse, usually bifid and awned, teeth to 0.3 mm, awns 0.5-4 mm, straight; paleas 3-4.2 mm, lanceolate, glabrous, acute to acuminate; anthers 1-1.8 mm, purplish. |
Caryopses | 0.8-1 mm, fusiform, brownish. |
not seen. |
2n | = 20, 22, 28. |
= 24. |
Muhlenbergia asperifolia |
Muhlenbergia ×involuta |
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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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TX |
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 ×involuta grows on rocky, calcareous slopes in openings and along canyons, at elevations of 150-500 m. It has only been found growing naturally in Texas, but it is also available commercially as an ornamental. Swallen (1932) suggested that M. reverchonii and M. lindheimeri were its parents, but M. rigida seems to be another plausible possibility. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 179. | FNA vol. 25, p. 187. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Muhlenbergia | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Muhlenbergia |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | (Nees & Meyen ex Trin.) Parodi | Swallen |
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