Muhlenbergia richardsonis
Muhlenbergia torreyana
mat muhly, Matted muhly, muhlenbergie de Richardson, Richardson's muhly, soft-leaf muhly
New Jersey 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.
30-75 cm, compressed and keeled;
internodes mostly glabrous, strigose on the keels and 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.
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.
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.
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.
1.7-3.1 mm, occasionally with 2 florets.
1.1-2.2 mm, occasionally with 2 florets.
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 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.
0.9-1.6 mm, narrowly ellipsoid, brown.
about 1 mm, fusiform, brownish.
= 40.
= unknown.
Muhlenbergia richardsonis
Muhlenbergia torreyana
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 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.)
- Local floras:
BC, 
CA, 
OR, 
WA - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos,
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