Muhlenbergia pungens
Muhlenbergia dumosa
sandhill muhly
bamboo muhly
10-70 cm, decumbent below;
internodes cinereous-lanate, glabrous, or scabrous for most of their length, always cinereous-lanate below the nodes.
100-300 cm tall, 3-6 mm thick, erect or ascending, woody below, branching at the middle and upper nodes, branches numerous, fascicled, and spreading;
internodes glabrous for most of their length, puberulent or glaucous below the nodes.
longer than the internodes, cinereous-lanate below, glabrous and smooth or scabridulous distally;
ligules 0.2-1 mm, densely ciliate, obtuse, with lateral lobes;
blades 2-8 cm long, 1-2.2 mm wide, flat to tightly involute, scabrous abaxially, hirsute adaxially, stiff, pungent.
glabrous, enlarged and flattened basally, somewhat chartaceous;
ligules 0.2-0.6 mm, membranous, truncate;
blades of the branch leaves 1.2-8(12) cm long, 0.7-2.2 mm wide, flat or involute, glabrous abaxially, hirtellous adaxially;
blades of the cauline leaves, particularly the lower cauline leaves, absent or greatly reduced.
(7)8-16(19) cm long, (2)4-14 cm wide, open;
primary branches 1.5-8 cm, capillary, straight, lower branches diverging 70°-90° from the rachises in mature plants, often appearing fascicled in immature plants;
pedicels 10-25 mm.
numerous, terminal on the main culms and the branches, 1-4 cm long, 0.3-1.4 cm wide, lax, inconspicuous;
primary panicle branches appressed or loosely spreading up to 40° from the rachises;
pedicels 0.1-1.5 mm.
2.6-4.5 mm.
2.2-3.1 mm, green or purplish.
equal, 1.2-3 mm, purplish near the base, smooth or scabridulous distally, 1-veined, acuminate or acute, unawned or awned, awns to 1 mm;
lemmas 2.6-4.5 mm, lanceolate, purplish, scabridulous distally and on the margins, apices acuminate, awned, awns 1-1.5(2) mm, straight;
paleas 2.6-4.5 mm, lanceolate, glabrous, acuminate, 2-awned, awns to 1 mm;
anthers 1.8-2.6 mm, purplish.
subequal, 1-1.7 mm, glabrous, 1-veined, acute to acuminate, occasionally mucronate, mucros to 0.5 mm;
lemmas 2.3-3.1 mm, lanceolate, appressed-pubescent on the calluses and lower portion of the margins, apices acuminate, awned, awns 1-5 mm, flexuous;
paleas 2.3-3.1 mm, narrowly lanceolate, appressed-pubescent basally, acuminate;
anthers 1.5-2 mm, purplish.
1.8-2.5 mm, fusiform, brownish.
1.2-1.6 mm, fusiform, reddish-brown.
= 26, 42, 60.
= 40.
Muhlenbergia pungens
Muhlenbergia dumosa
Muhlenbergia pungens grows in loose sandy soils near sand dunes to sandy clay loam slopes and flats in desert shrub and open woodlands, at elevations of 600-2500 m. It is known only from the western and central contiguous United States.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Muhlenbergia dumosa grows on rocky slopes, canyon ledges, and cliffs, in areas protected from grazing animals in oak-pine and thorn-scrub forests and oak-gramma savannahs, at elevations of 600-1800 m, from Arizona to southern Mexico.
The bladeless cauline leaves and abundant branching from the middle and upper nodes make 'Bamboo Muhly' a very apt English name. North American Indians used it, after boiling, for chest and bowel ailments. It is native from southern Arizona to southern Mexico, but is also grown as an ornamental in the southwestern United States.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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