Sporobolus filiculmis Vasey ex Beal:
Mexico (Mesoamerica)

Vilfa filiculmis Thurb. ex Vasey:
Mexico (Mesoamerica)

Muhlenbergia thurberi (Scribn.) Rydb.:
United States (North America)

United States

Origin: Native

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Present

Confidence: Confident

Type of Residency: Year-round

Global Range: This species is known from Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah (Kartesz and BONAP 1998). More specifically it is found in Mesa to Montezuma counties, Colorado (Weber and Wittmann 1996), Garfield, Grand, Kane, San Juan, Sevier, Washington, and Wayne counties, Utah (Welsh et al. 1993), and Apache County, Arizona (Kearney et al. 1951).

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Rhizomes present, Rhizome elongate, creeping, stems distant, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems geniculate, decumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at nodes, Stems mat or turf forming, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly basal, below middle of stem, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades very short, 0.5-2 cm long, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades subulate, needle-like, tip pungent, Leaf blades very narrow or filiform, less than 2 mm wide, Leaf blade margins folded, involute, or conduplicate, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Ligule a fringed, ciliate, or lobed membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence a dense slender spike-like panicle or raceme, branches contracted, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence with 2-10 branches, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets laterally compressed, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 1 fertile floret, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating above the glumes, glumes persistent, Spikelets disarticulating beneath or between the florets, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes equal or subequal, Glumes shorter than adjacent lemma, Glumes 1 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma similar in texture to glumes, Lemma 3 nerved, Lemma body or surface hairy, Lemma apex acute or acuminate, Lemma mucronate, very shortly beaked or awned, less than 1-2 mm, Lemma distinctly awned, more than 2-3 mm, Lemma with 1 awn, Lemma awn less than 1 cm long, Lemma awned from tip, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Callus or base of lemma evidently hairy, Callus hairs shorter than lemma, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea about equal to lemma, Palea 2 nerved or 2 keeled, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear.

Comments: This species occurs in dry to moist, often sandy or rocky sites, in hanging gardens, desert shrub, pinyon-juniper, and ponderosa pine communities at 1130 to 2500 meters (Welsh et al. 1993).

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: N3 - Vulnerable

Rounded Global Status Rank: G3 - Vulnerable

Reasons: M. thurberi is reported from five states but little information is known about specific distribution or abundance.

Comments: "All the Nevada material we have seen was identified as M. curtifolia. The asserted differences between these taxa are not readily discernible, and for our purposes it seems desirable to combine the two " (Cronquist et al. 1977). On the other hand, Kartesz (1999) lists M. thurberi and M. curtifolia as distinct species.