Muhlenbergia richardsonis |
Muhlenbergia palmeri |
|
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mat muhly, Matted muhly, muhlenbergie de Richardson, Richardson's muhly, soft-leaf muhly |
Palmer's muhly, Southwestern muhly |
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Habit | Plants perennial; rhizomatous, not cespitose, often mat-forming. | Plants perennial; cespitose, not rhizomatous. |
Culms | 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. |
50-100 cm tall, 2-4 mm thick, erect, rounded near the base, not conspicuously branched, not rooting at the lower nodes; internodes mostly glabrous, sometimes puberulent below the nodes. |
Sheaths | 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. |
longer than the internodes, smooth or scabridulous, not becoming spirally coiled when old; ligules 1-3 mm, firm to membranous, truncate, ciliolate; blades 15-50 cm long, 1-3.5 mm wide, flat to involute, smooth or scabridulous abaxially, scabrous adaxially. |
Panicles | 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. |
15-35 cm long, 0.5-2(3) cm wide; primary branches 0.5-8 cm, appressed; pedicels 1-6 mm, hispidulous. |
Spikelets | 1.7-3.1 mm, occasionally with 2 florets. |
3-4.3 mm, yellowish-brown to purplish. |
Glumes | 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. |
subequal, (1.7)2-3.1 mm, about 3/4 as long as the florets, scabridulous distally, 1-veined, apices acute to acuminate, awned, awns to 1.5 mm; lemmas 3-4.3 mm, lanceolate, calluses hairy, hairs to 1.5 mm, lemma bodies scabridulous, apices acuminate, awned, awns 3-10 mm, straight; paleas 2.9^1.2 mm, lanceolate, scabridulous, acute to acuminate; anthers 1.5-2.5 mm, yellow to purple-tinged. |
Caryopses | 0.9-1.6 mm, narrowly ellipsoid, brown. |
2-3 mm, fusiform, brownish. |
2n | = 40. |
= unknown. |
Muhlenbergia richardsonis |
Muhlenbergia palmeri |
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Distribution |
AK; AZ; CA; CO; ID; ME; MI; MN; MT; ND; NE; NM; NV; OR; SD; UT; WA; WI; WY; AB; BC; MB; NB; NT; ON; QC; SK; YT
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AZ |
Discussion | 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 palmeri grows in rocky drainages and in sandy soil along creeks, at elevations of 1000-2100 m. Its range extends from southern Arizona into northern Mexico. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 177. | FNA vol. 25, p. 192. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Muhlenbergia | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Muhlenbergia |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Sporobolus depauperatus, M. squarrosa | M. dubioides |
Name authority | (Trin.) Rydb. | Vasey |
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