Muhlenbergia glomerata |
Muhlenbergia asperifolia |
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bristly muhly, marsh muhly, muhlenbergie agglomeree, spike muhly |
alkali muhly, or alkali muhly, scratch grass |
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Habit | Plants perennial; rhizomatous, not cespitose. | Plants perennial; rhizomatous, not cespitose, occasionally: stoloniferous. |
Culms | 30-120 cm tall, 0.8-2.5 mm thick, erect, seldom branched above the base; internodes dull, mostly puberulent (sometimes sparsely so), terete, rarely keeled, strigose immediately below the nodes. |
10-60(100) cm, decumbent-ascending, bases somewhat compressed-keeled; internodes glabrous, shiny below the nodes. |
Sheaths | scabridulous, slightly keeled; ligules 0.2-0.6 mm, membranous, truncate, lacerate-ciliolate; blades 2-15 cm long, 2-6 mm wide, flat, usually scabrous or scabridulous, occasionally smooth. |
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. |
Panicles | 1.5-12 cm long, 0.3-1.8 cm wide, lobed, dense; primary branches 0.2-2.5 cm, appressed; pedicels absent or to 1 mm, strigose. |
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. |
Spikelets | 3-8 mm. |
1.2-2.1 mm, occasionally with 2 or 3 florets. |
Glumes | subequal, 3-8 mm (including the awn), about 1.3-2 times longer than the lemmas, smooth or scabridulous distally, 1-veined, acuminate, awned, awns to 5 mm; lemmas 1.9-3.1 mm, lanceolate, pubescent on the calluses, mid-veins, and margins, hairs to 1.2 mm, apices scabridulous, acuminate, unawned or awned, awns to 1 mm; paleas 1.9-3.1 mm, lanceolate, loosely pilose between the veins, apices acuminate; anthers 0.8-1.5 mm, yellowish. |
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. |
Caryopses | 1-1.6 mm, fusiform, brown. |
0.8-1 mm, fusiform, brownish. |
2n | = 20. |
= 20, 22, 28. |
Muhlenbergia glomerata |
Muhlenbergia asperifolia |
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Distribution |
CO; CT; DC; IA; ID; IL; IN; KY; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NV; NY; OH; OR; PA; RI; SD; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; AB; BC; LB; MB; NB; NS; NT; ON; PE; QC; SK; YT
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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 glomerata grows in meadows, marshes, bogs, alkaline fens, lake margins, stream banks, beside irrigation ditches and hot springs, and on gravelly slopes, in many different plant communities, at elevations of 30-2300 m. It is most common in southern Canada and the northeastern United States, but grows sporadically throughout the western United States. It is not known from Mexico. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 154. | FNA vol. 25, p. 179. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Muhlenbergia | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Muhlenbergia |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | M. racemosa var. cinnoides, M. glomerata var. cinnoides | |
Name authority | (Willd.) Trin. | (Nees & Meyen ex Trin.) Parodi |
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