Muhlenbergia mexicana |
Muhlenbergia arenicola |
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Mexican muhly, muhlenbergie du mexique, muhlenbergie mexicaine, wire-stem muhly, wood satin grass |
sand muhly |
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Habit | Plants perennial; rhizomatous, not cespitose. | Plants perennial; cespitose, not rhizomatous. |
Culms | 30-90 cm tall, 0.5-2 mm thick, erect, much branched above the base; internodes dull, puberulent or glabrous for most of their length, sometimes strigose immediately below the nodes. |
(15)20-60 (70) cm, somewhat decumbent, 1 or more nodes exposed; internodes hispidulous below the nodes. |
Sheaths | smooth or scabridulous, somewhat keeled; ligules 0.4-1 mm, membranous, truncate, lacerate-ciliolate; blades 2-20 cm long, 2-6 mm wide, flat, scabrous or smooth, those of the secondary branches similar in length and width to those of the main branches. |
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Leaves | somewhat basally concentrated, most blades not reaching more than (1/4)1/2 of the plant height; sheaths usually a little shorter than the internodes, not keeled, scabridulous, margins hyaline, basal sheaths rounded, not becoming spirally coiled when old; ligules 2-9 mm, hyaline, acute, lacerate, often with lateral lobes; blades 4-10(16) cm long, 1-2.2 mm wide, not arcuate, flat, folded, or involute, scabrous, often glaucous, midveins and margins not thickened, green. |
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Panicles | terminal and axillary, 2-21 cm long, 0.3-3 cm wide, dense; primary branches 0.3-5.5 cm, appressed or diverging up to 30° from rachises; pedicels to 2 mm, strigose; axillary panicles exserted on long peduncles. |
12-30 cm long, 5-20 cm wide, diffuse; primary branches 1-10 cm, diverging 30-80° from the rachises, naked basally; pedicels 1-4(6) mm. |
Spikelets | 1.5-3.8 mm, often purple-tinged. |
2.5-4.2 mm. |
Glumes | subequal, 1.5-3.7 mm, equaling or slightly shorter than the lemmas, 1-veined, tapering from the bases to the acuminate apices, unawned or awned, awns to 2 mm; lemmas 1.5-3.8 mm, lanceolate, pubescent on the calluses, lower portion of the mid-veins, and margins, hairs shorter than 0.7 mm, apices scabridulous, acuminate, unawned or awned, awns to 10 mm; paleas 1.5-3.8 mm, narrowly lanceolate, apices acuminate; anthers 0.3-0.5 mm, yellow to purplish. |
equal, 1.4-2.5 mm, 1-veined, apices scabridulous, acute to acuminate, minutely erose, unawned or awned, awns to 1 mm; lemmas 2.5-4.2 mm, narrowly elliptic, usually purplish, scabrous distally, appressed-pubescent on the lower 1/2 - 3/4 of the margins and midveins, apices acuminate, awned, awns 0.5-4.2 mm; paleas 2.5-3.5 mm, narrowly elliptic, intercostal region sparsely pubescent, apices acuminate, with 2 short (0.1-0.2 mm) awns; anthers 1.5-2.1 mm, greenish. |
Caryopses | 1.1-1.6 mm, fusiform, brown. |
1.9-2.3 mm, fusiform, brownish. |
2n | = 40. |
= 80, 82. |
Muhlenbergia mexicana |
Muhlenbergia arenicola |
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Distribution |
AL; AR; AZ; CA; CO; CT; DE; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SD; TN; TX; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; HI; BC; MB; NB; NS; ON; QC; SK; YT
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AZ; CO; KS; NM; OK; TX
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Discussion | Muhlenbergia mexicana usually grows in mesic to wet areas such as moist prairies and woodlands, stream banks, roadsides, ditch banks, lake margins, swamps, bogs, and hot springs, at elevations 50-3300 m, and is found in many different plant communities. Despite its name, M. mexicana grows only in Canada and the United States. Plants with awns 3-10 mm long belong to Muhlenbergia mexicana var. filiformis (Torr.) Scribn., and those without an awn or with awns less than 3 mm long to Muhlenbergia mexicana (L.) Trin. var. mexicana. Early in the flowering season, M. mexicana may be confused with plants of M. bushii in which the axillary panicles are poorly developed, but they differ in their dull internodes and the fact that the blades on the secondary branches are usually similar in length and width to those of the main branches. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Muhlenbergia arenicola grows on sandy mesas, limestone benches, and in valleys and open desert grasslands, at elevations of 600-2135 m. Its range extends from the southwestern United States to central 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. 154. | FNA vol. 25, p. 173. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Muhlenbergia | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Muhlenbergia |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | (L.) Trin. | Buckley |
Web links |
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