Muhlenbergia pungens
Muhlenbergia torreyana
sandhill muhly
New Jersey muhly
10-70 cm, decumbent below;
internodes cinereous-lanate, glabrous, or scabrous for most of their length, always cinereous-lanate below the nodes.
30-75 cm, compressed and keeled;
internodes mostly glabrous, strigose on the keels and 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.
strigose on the keels, basal sheaths much shorter than those above;
ligules 0.3-1 mm, firm, truncate, ciliate;
blades 6-20 cm long, 1-3.5 mm wide, conduplicate, scabrous on both surfaces, tapering to a fine sharp point.
(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.
10-28 cm long, 4-8 cm wide, cylindrical, open;
primary branches 3-10 cm long, 0.05-0.1 mm thick, capillary, diverging 30-40° from the rachises, never appearing fascicled;
pedicels 1.5-9 mm, usually longer than the spikelets.
2.6-4.5 mm.
1.1-2.2 mm, occasionally with 2 florets.
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.
equal, 1-2 mm, purplish, scabridulous, 1-veined, acute, unawned;
lemmas 1.1-2.2 mm, lanceolate, plumbeous, scabridulous, apices acute, unawned;
paleas 1-2.1 mm, lanceolate, scabridulous, acute;
anthers 1-1.4 mm, orange-yellow, turning purple at maturity.
1.8-2.5 mm, fusiform, brownish.
about 1 mm, fusiform, brownish.
= 26, 42, 60.
= unknown.
Muhlenbergia pungens
Muhlenbergia torreyana
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 torreyana grows in perennially wet or moist, usually seasonally inundated habitats such as the sphagnous margins of shallow ponds and seasonally wet depressions, often within pine-oak or oak barrens and at elevations of 0-150 m. Kartesz and Meacham (1999) report that it appears to have been eliminated from New York, Delaware, and Georgia but that, in addition to the locations shown on the map, it grows in Maryland and New Jersey. Hitchcock (1951) reported that it grew in Kentucky, but no specimens documenting its presence there have been located. It is rare even in those states where it is still growing.
Morphologically, Muhlenbergia torreyana resembles the western M. asperifolia but differs in its strigose, strongly compressed, keeled culms and less strongly divergent panicle branches.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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