Muhlenbergia montana
Muhlenbergia glabrifloris
mountain muhly
inland muhly
10-80 cm, erect, rounded near the base;
internodes glabrous.
30-100 cm tall, 0.5-2 mm thick, herbaceous, ascending or decumbent, bushy and much branched above;
internodes smooth and shiny for most of their length, scabridulous or strigulose below the nodes.
smooth or scabridulous, becoming flattened, papery, and occasionally spirally coiled when old, lower sheaths longer than the internodes;
ligules 4-14(20) mm, membranous, acute to acuminate;
blades 6-25 cm long, 1-2.5 mm wide, flat, becoming involute, scabrous abaxially, hirsute adaxially.
glabrous, margins hyaline;
ligules 0.5-1.5 mm, membranous, truncate, lacerate-ciliolate;
blades 3-8 cm long, (1.5)2-4 mm wide, flat, glabrous.
4-25 cm long, (1)2-6 cm wide, not dense;
primary branches 0.5-10 cm, appressed or diverging up to 40° from the rachises;
pedicels 0.5-6.5 mm, scabrous.
2-6.5 cm long, 0.2-0.8 cm wide, lobed, dense;
branches 0.3-2.5 cm, ascending, closely appressed;
axillary panicles common, partly included in or exserted from the subtending sheaths;
pedicels 0.3-2.2 mm, scabrous to strigulose.
3-7 mm.
2.2-3.5 mm.
subequal, (1)1.5-3.2(4) mm, smooth or scabridulous distally;
lower glumes 1-veined, sometimes with a less than 1 mm awn;
upper glumes 1/3–2/3 as long as the lemmas, 3-veined, truncate to acute, 3-toothed, teeth sometimes awned, awns to 1.6 mm;
lemmas 3-4.5(7) mm, lanceolate, loosely to densely appressed-pubescent on the lower portion of the mid-veins and margins, hairs to 0.8 mm, apices acute to acuminate, awned, awns (2)6-25 mm, flexuous;
paleas 3-4.5(7) mm, lanceolate, acute to acuminate;
anthers 1.5-2.3 mm, purplish.
subequal, 1.5-3.5 mm, from 3/4 as long as to longer than the lemmas, smooth or scabridulous near the apices, 1-veined;
upper glumes acuminate, acute, unawned or awned, awns to 1.2 mm;
lemmas 2.2-3.1 mm, narrowly lanceolate, shiny, stramineous or purplish, usually completely glabrous (rarely with a few appressed hairs), apices scabridulous, acuminate, unawned;
paleas 2.2-3.1 mm, narrowly lanceolate;
anthers 0.3-0.5 mm, yellow to purplish.
1.8-2 mm, fusiform, light brown.
1.2-1.4 mm, fusiform, brown.
= 20, 40.
= 40.
Muhlenbergia montana
Muhlenbergia glabrifloris
Muhlenbergia montana grows on rocky slopes and ridge tops and in dry meadows and open grasslands, at elevations of 1400-3500 m. Its range extends from the western United States to Guatemala. Muhlenbergia montana is sometimes difficult to distinguish from M. filiculmis, but that species has shorter spikelets and lemma awns and tightly involute or filiform, sharp blades.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Muhlenbergia glabrifloris grows at the edge of dry forests, in prairies, thickets, and along roadsides in pine and oak associations, at elevations of 20-400 m. It is restricted to the southern portion of the central contiguous United States. It resembles M. frondosa, but differs from that species in its glabrous lemmas and shorter caryopses (1.2-1.4 mm rather than 1.6-1.9 mm).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
CA
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
