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Muhlenbergia fragilis - delicate muhly

Scientific Family
Poaceae
Other common names
annual muhly
Plant type
Grasses
Riparian
No

Grass Description

Origin
Native
Season
Warm

Moist sandy or gravelly soil of valley flats and on dry slopes, desert scrub to pine forests.

Plant Community
Desert Scrub
Interior Chaparral
Montane Conifer Forest
Pinyon Juniper Woodlands
Grasslands
Low elevation
2400
High elevation
6500
Similar species
Muhlenbergia sinuosa, Muhlenbergia minutissima

General Description

Delicate annual grass small with most of the plant being a delicate seedhead.

Annual; stems abruptly bent, ascending, freely branched from the base; seedhead often purplish, up to 15 inches; blades flat or folded, up to 3 inches; lemmas awnless; glumes glabrous. Spikelet stems of M. sinuosa, M. minutissima are thread-like.

Grass type
Annual
Rhizomes
No
Stolons
No
Clump Diameter 2 ft or more
No
Bushy - highly branched
No
Height with Seedheads
12 inches or more
Seedhead Structure
Branched - open and spreading
Seedhead droops
No
First bloom month
August
Last bloom month
October

Flower Characteristics

Flowers per Spikelet
One-flowered
Spikelets One-Sided
No
Awns
Absent
Three Awns
No
Awns bent
No
Flower and Seedhead Notes

Seedhead often purple, very open and readily breaking off at maturity, up to 15 inches long or more, diffuse and fragile. Spikelets less than 1/16 inch long, glumes 1/2 length of spikelets, 1 nerved, not hairy. Lemmas silky (hairy) on keel and margin.

Vegetative Characteristics

Blade is hairy
No
Blade margins white
Yes
Blade cross-section
Flat
Folded

Blade 3/4 to 2-1/4 inches long, 1/16 inch wide, thickened white margins and white mid-nerve.

Sheath is hairy
No
Tufts of hair top of sheath or collar
No
Ligule
Membranous
Auricles
No

Not available.