Longawn Muhly

Muhlenbergia spiciformis Trin. Mem. Acad. St.-Petersb. VI
6-: 288 (reprint 42). 1841.
Muhlenbergia aculifolia Fourn. Mex. PI. Gram. 86. 1886. (Tvpe from Orizaba, Mexico, Bourgeau 33Z7.)
Perennial; culms cespitose, erect, glabrous or scaberulous, 30-60 cm. tall; sheaths glabrous; ligule ciliolate, 0.5 mm. long ; blades flat or usually more or less involute, puberulent or scaberulous, erect, mostly 5-10 cm. long, 1-2 mm. wide; panicle soft, pale or stramineous, dense or spikelike, mostly inclosed at base in the uppermost sheath, 10-15 cm. long, the branches appressed, angled, scaberulous, floriferous from base; glumes about equal, truncate, erose, mostly less than 1 mm. long; lemma narrow, acuminate, scaberulous, minutely and sparsely pilose at base, about 3 mm. long, the awn very slender, slightly flexuous, 1-4 cm. long.
Type locality: Mexico (Karwinsky). Distribution: Cliffs and canyons, southern Mexico.

Muhlenbergia parviglumis Vasey, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3:
71. 1892. Perennial, with the habit of M. monticola; culms scaberulous below the nodes, 30-80 cm. tall; sheaths glabrous, shorter than the internodes; ligule 1-3 mm. long; blades on the average somewhat longer than in M. monticola, 1-3 mm. wide; glumes minute, subacute to truncate, erose, about 0.5 mm. long; lemma scaberulous only, minutely and sparsely pilose at base, about 3 mm. long, tapering into a delicate nearly straight awn 2-4 cm. long.
Type locality: Texas (Nealley).
Distribution: Canyons. Texas and northern Mexico: Cuba (Pinar del Rio. Ekman 16547).

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, 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 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 linear, Leaf blades very narrow or filiform, less than 2 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blade margins folded, involute, or conduplicate, Lea f blades mostly glabrous, Leaf blades more or less hairy, Leaf blades scabrous, roughened, or wrinkled, Ligule present, Ligule a fringed, ciliate, or lobed membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence a contracted panicle, narrowly paniculate, branches appressed or ascending, 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 branches more than 10 to numerous, 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 adja cent lemma, Glumes 1 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma similar in texture to glumes, Lemma 3 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma apex acute or acuminate, Lemma distinctly awned, more than 2-3 mm, Lemma with 1 awn, Lemma awn 1-2 cm long, Lemma awn 2-4 cm long or longer, Lemma awned from tip, Lemma awns straight or curved to base, 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.