Muhlenbergia mexicana |
Muhlenbergia repens |
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Mexican muhly, muhlenbergie du mexique, muhlenbergie mexicaine, wire-stem muhly, wood satin grass |
creeping muhly, red muhly |
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Habit | Plants perennial; rhizomatous, not cespitose. | Plants perennial; rhizomatous, not cespitose. |
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. |
5-42 cm tall, 0.5-1 mm thick, decumbent near the base, forming dense mats; internodes glabrous, slightly nodulose. |
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. |
shorter or longer than the internodes, glabrous; ligules 0.1-1(1.8) mm, membranous, truncate, occasionally lacerate; blades 0.4-6 cm long, 0.5-1.4 mm wide, involute, glabrous, smooth or scabridulous 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. |
1-9 cm long, 0.1-0.6 cm wide, contracted, not dense, usually partially included in the upper leaf sheaths; primary branches 0.2-3 cm, usually closely appressed at maturity, rarely diverging up to 40° from the rachises; pedicels 0.2-3.6 mm, setulose. |
Spikelets | 1.5-3.8 mm, often purple-tinged. |
2.6-4.2 mm, occasionally with 2 florets. |
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. |
subequal, 1.1-3.6 mm, from 1/2 as long as to equaling the lemmas, light green, 1(2-3)-veined, acute, unawned; lemmas 2.6-3.2(4.2) mm, lanceolate, dark greenish or mottled, glabrous or the calluses and margins appressed-pubescent, hairs to 0.3 mm, apices scabridulous, attenuate, usually mucronate, mucros 0.1-0.3 mm; paleas 2.1-3.3 mm, lanceolate, smooth or scabridulous, acute; anthers 0.7-1.4 mm, yellow to purplish. |
Caryopses | 1.1-1.6 mm, fusiform, brown. |
1.1-1.5 mm, ellipsoid to ovoid, brownish. |
2n | = 40. |
= 60, 70-72. |
Muhlenbergia mexicana |
Muhlenbergia repens |
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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; NM; TX; UT
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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 repens grows in open, sandy meadows, canyon bottoms, calcareous rocky flats, gypsum flats, and on rolling slopes and roadsides, at elevations of 100-3120 m. Its range extends from the southwestern United States to southern Mexico. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 154. | FNA vol. 25, p. 175. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Muhlenbergia | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Muhlenbergia |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | (L.) Trin. | (J. Presl) Hitchc. |
Web links |
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