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Mexican muhly, muhlenbergie du mexique, muhlenbergie mexicaine, wire-stem muhly, wood satin grass

Peruvian muhly

Habit Plants perennial; rhizomatous, not cespitose. Plants annual; tufted.
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.

3-27 cm, erect, glabrous.

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.

usually longer than the internodes, smooth or scabridulous;

ligules 1.5-3 mm, membra nous, acute;

blades 1-5 cm long, 0.6-1.5 mm wide, flat to involute, smooth or scabridulous abaxially, sometimes shortly pubescent adaxially.

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.

2-8 cm long, 0.3-3.4 cm wide, contracted or open;

primary branches 1-5 cm, diverging up to 80° from the rachises;

pedicels 0.4-5 mm, smooth or scabrous.

Spikelets

1.5-3.8 mm, often purple-tinged.

1.4-4.2 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.

smooth or scabridulous;

lower glumes 0.8-2.8 mm, narrow to broadly lanceolate, 1-veined, acute, often awn-tipped;

upper glumes 0.9-3 mm, wider than the lower glumes, lanceolate, (1)2-3-veined, truncate to acute, 2- or 3-toothed;

lemmas 1.4-4.2 mm, widest near the base, purplish mottled with dark green, hairy on the calluses and lower M of the lemma bodies, hairs to 0.5 mm, apices acuminate, usually bifid and awned from between the teeth, teeth to 0.5 mm, awns 3-10 mm, flexuous, purplish;

paleas 1.3-3.8 mm, narrowly lanceolate, acuminate to subacute;

anthers 0.5-1 mm, purplish to yellowish.

Caryopses

1.1-1.6 mm, fusiform, brown.

1-1.6 mm, fusiform, brownish.

2n

= 40.

= 30.

Muhlenbergia mexicana

Muhlenbergia peruviana

Distribution
from FNA
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
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AZ; NM
[BONAP county map]
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 peruviana grows in open gravelly flats, meadows, rock outcrops, sandy washes, gravelly drainages, rocky slopes, disturbed road cuts, and volcanic flats, in yellow pine forest associations, at elevations of 2000-4600 m. Its primary distribution is to the south of the Flora region, extending from the southwestern United States through Mexico to Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina.

As treated here, Muhlenbergia peruviana includes what are sometimes identified as M. pulcherrima Scribn. ex Beal, M. pusilla Steud., and M. peruviana s. s. There are, however, numerous intermediates among the three extremes represented by these names.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 25, p. 154. FNA vol. 25, p. 185.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Muhlenbergia Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Muhlenbergia
Sibling taxa
M. andina, M. appressa, M. arenacea, M. arenicola, M. arizonica, M. arsenei, M. asperifolia, M. brevis, M. bushii, M. californica, M. capillaris, M. crispiseta, M. curtifolia, M. cuspidata, M. depauperata, M. diversiglumis, M. dubia, M. dumosa, M. elongata, M. eludens, M. emersleyi, M. expansa, M. filiculmis, M. filiformis, M. fragilis, M. frondosa, M. glabrifloris, M. glauca, M. glomerata, M. jonesii, M. lindheimeri, M. longiligula, M. microsperma, M. minutissima, M. montana, M. palmeri, M. pauciflora, M. pectinata, M. peruviana, M. polycaulis, M. porteri, M. pungens, M. racemosa, M. ramulosa, M. repens, M. reverchonii, M. richardsonis, M. rigens, M. rigida, M. schreberi, M. sericea, M. setifolia, M. sinuosa, M. sobolifera, M. spiciformis, M. straminea, M. sylvatica, M. tenuiflora, M. tenuifolia, M. texana, M. thurberi, M. torreyana, M. torreyi, M. uniflora, M. utilis, M. villiflora, M. wrightii, M. ×curtisetosa, M. ×involuta
M. andina, M. appressa, M. arenacea, M. arenicola, M. arizonica, M. arsenei, M. asperifolia, M. brevis, M. bushii, M. californica, M. capillaris, M. crispiseta, M. curtifolia, M. cuspidata, M. depauperata, M. diversiglumis, M. dubia, M. dumosa, M. elongata, M. eludens, M. emersleyi, M. expansa, M. filiculmis, M. filiformis, M. fragilis, M. frondosa, M. glabrifloris, M. glauca, M. glomerata, M. jonesii, M. lindheimeri, M. longiligula, M. mexicana, M. microsperma, M. minutissima, M. montana, M. palmeri, M. pauciflora, M. pectinata, M. polycaulis, M. porteri, M. pungens, M. racemosa, M. ramulosa, M. repens, M. reverchonii, M. richardsonis, M. rigens, M. rigida, M. schreberi, M. sericea, M. setifolia, M. sinuosa, M. sobolifera, M. spiciformis, M. straminea, M. sylvatica, M. tenuiflora, M. tenuifolia, M. texana, M. thurberi, M. torreyana, M. torreyi, M. uniflora, M. utilis, M. villiflora, M. wrightii, M. ×curtisetosa, M. ×involuta
Synonyms M. pulcherrima
Name authority (L.) Trin. (P. Beauv.) Steud.
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