Scientific Family
Poaceae
Synonyms
Sporobolus confusus
Other common names
least muhly
Plant type
Grasses
Riparian
No
Grass Description
Origin
Native
Season
Warm
Grows in sandy and gravelly drainages, rocky slopes, flats, road cuts, and open sites. It is usually found in oak-pine forests,
pinyon-juniper woodlands and desert shrublands.
Plant Community
Pinyon Juniper Woodlands
Montane Conifer Forest
Interior Chaparral
Grasslands
Low elevation
4000
High elevation
9000
General Description
Delicate annual with minimum leaf area, up to 14 inches tall. Two-thirds of the plant is seedhead, very open and spreading. Sometimes many plants form a diffuse pink cloud of seedheads.
Annual awnless grass; spikelets hair-like and elongated; seadheads open but not spreading; spikelet stems straight; glumes have minute spreading hairs.
Grass type
Annual
Rhizomes
No
Stolons
No
Clump Diameter 2 ft or more
No
Bushy - highly branched
No
Height with Seedheads
Less than 12 inches
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, open loosely flowered, 4 to 7 inches long and 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 inches wide, half to two-thirds the length of the entire plant. Spikelets to 1/16 inch long. Pedicels mostly straight. Glumes shorter than spikelets (1/2 to 2/3) and lemmas hairy.
Vegetative Characteristics
Blade is hairy
Yes
Blade margins white
No
Blade cross-section
Flat
Involute – rolled inward on upper surface
Blades 3/4 to 2-1/4 inches long, to 1/16 inch wide, flat or rolled inward, roughened with stout projections below, covered with short soft hairs or down above.
Sheath is hairy
No
Tufts of hair top of sheath or collar
No
Ligule
Membranous
Auricles
No
Not available.