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ring muhly

Habit Plants perennial; cespitose, not rhizomatous.
Culms

10-40(50) cm, decumbent, usually all the nodes concealed by the sheaths;

internodes mostly scabrous or smooth, hispidulous below the nodes.

Leaves

strongly basally concentrated, most blades not reaching more than 1/5 of the plant height;

sheaths shorter than the internodes, rounded, not keeled, scabridulous or smooth, not becoming spirally coiled when old;

ligules 2-5(7) mm, hyaline, acuminate, lacerate, often with lateral lobes;

blades 1-3(5) cm long, 0.3-0.9 mm wide, tightly involute or folded, arcuate, scabridulous, midveins and margins not thickened, green, apices somewhat sharp-pointed.

Panicles

7-21 cm long, 3-15 cm wide, diffuse;

primary branches 1-8 cm, diverging 30-90° from the rachises, stiff, naked basally;

pedicels 1-8 mm, sometimes appressed to the branches.

Spikelets

2-3.5 mm.

Glumes

equal, 1.3-2.5 mm, scabridulous, 1-veined, apices acute to acuminate, minutely erose, unawned or awned, awns to 1.1 mm;

lemmas 2-3.2(3.5) mm, narrowly elliptic to lanceolate, appressed-pubescent on the basal 1/2 - 3/4 of the margins and midveins, apices scabrous, acuminate, awned, awns 0.5-4 mm;

paleas 2-3.2(3.5) mm, narrowly elliptic, intercostal region sparsely pubescent, apices acuminate;

anthers 1.2-2.1 mm, greenish.

Caryopses

1.7-2 mm, fusiform, brownish.

2n

= 20, 21.

Muhlenbergia torreyi

Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CO; KS; NM; NV; OK; TX; WY
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Muhlenbergia torreyi grows in desert grasslands and open woodlands on sandy mesas, calcareous rock out-crops, and rocky slopes, at elevations of 1000-2450 m. Its range extends from the southwestern United States to northern Mexico. It also grows, as a disjunct, in northwestern Argentina.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 25, p. 173.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Muhlenbergia
Sibling taxa
M. andina, M. appressa, M. arenacea, M. arenicola, M. arizonica, M. arsenei, M. asperifolia, M. brevis, M. bushii, M. californica, M. capillaris, M. crispiseta, M. curtifolia, M. cuspidata, M. depauperata, M. diversiglumis, M. dubia, M. dumosa, M. elongata, M. eludens, M. emersleyi, M. expansa, M. filiculmis, M. filiformis, M. fragilis, M. frondosa, M. glabrifloris, M. glauca, M. glomerata, M. jonesii, M. lindheimeri, M. longiligula, M. mexicana, M. microsperma, M. minutissima, M. montana, M. palmeri, M. pauciflora, M. pectinata, M. peruviana, M. polycaulis, M. porteri, M. pungens, M. racemosa, M. ramulosa, M. repens, M. reverchonii, M. richardsonis, M. rigens, M. rigida, M. schreberi, M. sericea, M. setifolia, M. sinuosa, M. sobolifera, M. spiciformis, M. straminea, M. sylvatica, M. tenuiflora, M. tenuifolia, M. texana, M. thurberi, M. torreyana, M. uniflora, M. utilis, M. villiflora, M. wrightii, M. ×curtisetosa, M. ×involuta
Name authority (Kunth) Hitchc. ex Bush
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