Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

SCRATCHGRASS

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Muhlenbergia asperifolia (Nees & Meyen) Parodi

Stafford County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 4-20 inches

Family: Poaceae - Grass Family

Flowering Period: June, July, August, September,October

Culms:

Base branching, decumbent, spreading; culm ascending or rarely erect, solid, slightly flattened, glabrous, shiny, sometimes glaucous; outer layer easily separates.

Blades:

Crowded, flat or folded longitudinally, .8 to 4 inches long, /25 to 1/10 inch wide, abruptly expanded above collar, rough, sometimes glaucous; tip tapering to long point.

Sheaths:

Shorter or about as long as internodes, usually overlapping, keeled, smooth.

Ligules:

Membranous, short, firm, margin jagged.

Inflorescences:

Panicle, open, much-branched, 2 to 8 inches long, broadly egg-shaped in outline, terminal; base sometimes partly enclosed in leaf sheath; branches widely spreading.

Spikelets:

Few, scattered at branch ends; stalk 2/5 to 4/5 inch long; 1-2-flowered, 1/20 to 1/12 inch long, often purplish or blackish; glumes nearly equal, lanceolate, thin, half to nearly as long as spikelet; tip often bristle-pointed; lemmas oblong-elliptic, 1/24 to 1/15 inch long. thin, glabrous; tip rounded to bluntly pointed, nearly awnless.

Habitat:

Stream banks, lake margins, ditches, open disturbed sites; moist, sandy, often alkaline soils.

Distribution:

West 2/3 of Kansas.

Origin:

Native

Comments:

Scratchgrass is strongly rhizomatous with long, slender rhizomes. It is sometimes infested with a smut fungus which will cause misshapen and blackened seeds.

Scratchgrass inflorescence