Muhlenbergia torreyi |
Muhlenbergia montana |
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ring muhly |
mountain muhly |
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Habit | Plants perennial; cespitose, not rhizomatous. | 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. |
10-80 cm, erect, rounded near the base; internodes glabrous. |
Sheaths | smooth or scabridulous, becoming flattened, papery, and occasionally spirally coiled when old, lower sheaths longer than the internodes; ligules 4-14(20) mm, membranous, acute to acuminate; blades 6-25 cm long, 1-2.5 mm wide, flat, becoming involute, scabrous abaxially, hirsute adaxially. |
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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. |
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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. |
4-25 cm long, (1)2-6 cm wide, not dense; primary branches 0.5-10 cm, appressed or diverging up to 40° from the rachises; pedicels 0.5-6.5 mm, scabrous. |
Spikelets | 2-3.5 mm. |
3-7 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. |
subequal, (1)1.5-3.2(4) mm, smooth or scabridulous distally; lower glumes 1-veined, sometimes with a less than 1 mm awn; upper glumes 1/3–2/3 as long as the lemmas, 3-veined, truncate to acute, 3-toothed, teeth sometimes awned, awns to 1.6 mm; lemmas 3-4.5(7) mm, lanceolate, loosely to densely appressed-pubescent on the lower portion of the mid-veins and margins, hairs to 0.8 mm, apices acute to acuminate, awned, awns (2)6-25 mm, flexuous; paleas 3-4.5(7) mm, lanceolate, acute to acuminate; anthers 1.5-2.3 mm, purplish. |
Caryopses | 1.7-2 mm, fusiform, brownish. |
1.8-2 mm, fusiform, light brown. |
2n | = 20, 21. |
= 20, 40. |
Muhlenbergia torreyi |
Muhlenbergia montana |
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Distribution |
AZ; CO; KS; NM; NV; OK; TX; WY
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AZ; CA; CO; MT; NM; TX; UT; WY
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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.) |
Muhlenbergia montana grows on rocky slopes and ridge tops and in dry meadows and open grasslands, at elevations of 1400-3500 m. Its range extends from the western United States to Guatemala. Muhlenbergia montana is sometimes difficult to distinguish from M. filiculmis, but that species has shorter spikelets and lemma awns and tightly involute or filiform, sharp blades. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 173. | FNA vol. 25, p. 183. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Muhlenbergia | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Muhlenbergia |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | (Kunth) Hitchc. ex Bush | (Nutt.) Hitchc. |
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