PLAINS MUHLY
File Size: 79 KB
 
Muhlenbergia cuspidata   (Torr. ) Rydb.
Saline County, Kansas
Perennial
Height: 8-16 inches
Family: Poaceae - Grass Family
Flowering Period:   July, August, September
Culms: Slender, stiffly erect, solid, flattened, minutely hairy below nodes, often thickened and bulblike at base; rhizomes absent. Forms tufts or small clumps.
Blades: Erect or ascending, flat, folded longitudinally or with margins loosely involute, 2 to 9 inches long, to .12 inch wide.
Sheaths: Keeled, glabrous or rough.
Ligules: Minute, .01 to .02 inch, membranous.
Inflorescences: Panicle, very slender, spike-like, 2 to 5 inches tall, base not enclosed by sheath; branches short, appressed to rachis.
Spikelets: Short-stalked, 1-flowered, .1 to .16 inch; glumes nearly equal, 1-nerved, lanceolate-subulate, .06 to .12 inch, overlapping at base, tips sharply pointed , awnless or with minute awn; lemma lanceolate to narrowly ovate, .1 to .16 inch, 3-nerved, acuminate, awnless, minutely pubescent on back, otherwise glabrous.
Habitat: Prairies, open hillsides, stony slopes; dry or gravelly soils.
Distribution: East 3/5 of Kansas
Origin: Native
Uses: The Navajo used the stems to make hair brushes and brooms.

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