Muhlenbergia richardsonis
Muhlenbergia pungens
mat muhly, Matted muhly, muhlenbergie de Richardson, Richardson's muhly, soft-leaf muhly
sandhill 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.
10-70 cm, decumbent below;
internodes cinereous-lanate, glabrous, or scabrous for most of their length, always cinereous-lanate 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.
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.
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.
(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.
1.7-3.1 mm, occasionally with 2 florets.
2.6-4.5 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, 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.
0.9-1.6 mm, narrowly ellipsoid, brown.
1.8-2.5 mm, fusiform, brownish.
= 40.
= 26, 42, 60.
Muhlenbergia richardsonis
Muhlenbergia pungens
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 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.)
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