Muhlenbergia richardsonis
Muhlenbergia curtifolia
mat muhly, Matted muhly, muhlenbergie de Richardson, Richardson's muhly, soft-leaf muhly
Utah muhly
5-30 cm tall, 0.4-1 mm thick, decumbent, geniculate, or erect;
internodes usually nodulose (occasionally smooth) for most of their length, puberulent or nodulose below the nodes.
10-45 cm tall, 0.3-0.5 mm thick, erect or decumbent;
internodes hirsute and strigose below the nodes.
shorter or longer than the internodes, glabrous;
ligules 0.8-3 mm, membranous, acute to truncate, erose;
blades 0.4-6.5 cm long, 0.5-4.2 mm wide, flat or involute, straight or arcuate-spreading, glabrous abaxially, hirtellous adaxially.
shorter than the internodes, hirsute;
ligules 0.2-0.6 mm, margins hyaline, apices truncate to obtuse, erose, ciliate;
blades 0.5-4(5) cm long, 0.6-1.5(2.2) mm wide, awl-shaped, flat near the base, becoming slightly involute distally, strigose to scabrous abaxially, hirsute adaxially.
1-15 cm long, 0.1-1.7 cm wide, exserted, narrow or spikelike, rachises usually concealed by the branches;
primary branches 0.4-5 cm, usually closely appressed at maturity, rarely diverging up to 20° from the rachises;
pedicels 0.2-2 mm, setulose.
2-10 cm long, 0.2-1 cm wide, contracted, not dense;
primary branches 0.3-2.5 cm, ascending to appressed;
pedicels 0.1-3 mm.
1.7-3.1 mm, occasionally with 2 florets.
2.8-4 mm.
subequal, 0.6-2 mm, 1/3– 1/2 as long as the lemmas, green, 1(2)-veined, acute, sometimes mucronate, mucros less than 0.2 mm;
lemmas 1.7-2.6(3.1) mm, lanceolate, dark greenish, plumbeous, or mottled, glabrous, apices scabridulous, acute to acuminate, sometimes mucronate, mucros to 0.5 mm;
paleas 1.2-2.4(2.9) mm, lanceolate, acute;
anthers 0.9-1.6 mm, yellow to purplish.
equal, 2.5-4 mm, 1-veined, veins scabridulous, apices acute;
lemmas 2.8-4 mm, lanceolate, hairy on the lower 3/4, hairs to 1.5 mm, tawny, midveins scabridulous distally, apices acuminate, awned, awns usually 1-6(12) mm, delicate, straight;
paleas 2.8-4 mm, lanceolate, intercostal region tawny pubescent on the basal 3/4;
anthers 1.2-1.6 mm, yellowish-purple.
0.9-1.6 mm, narrowly ellipsoid, brown.
2-2.4 mm, fusiform, brownish.
= 40.
= unknown.
Muhlenbergia richardsonis
Muhlenbergia curtifolia
Muhlenbergia richardsonis grows in open sites in alkaline meadows, prairies, sandy arroyo bottoms, talus slopes, rocky flats and the shores of rivers, at elevations of 60-3300 m. It is the most widespread species of Muhlenbergia in the Flora region, extending from the Yukon Territory to Quebec in the north and to northern Baja California, Mexico, in the south. Morden and Hatch (1996) reported that it also grows in Alaska, but no voucher specimen has been located.
Muhlenbergia richardsonis is often confused with M. cuspidata, which differs in lacking rhizomes and having shorter ligules, and sometimes with M. filiformis, which differs in being a weak annual with glabrous internodes and obtuse, erose glumes.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Muhlenbergia curtifolia grows on damp ledges and in rock crevices of vertical cliffs, and beneath large calcareous boulders above the canyon floor, at elevations of 1600-2750 m, in the southwestern United States. It resembles M. thurberi, differing in its flatter leaf blades and shorter ligules and anthers. It also tends to grow in more mesic habitats than M. thurberi.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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