Wirestem muhly

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Wirestem muhly

Wirestem muhly

Wirestem muhly leaves

Wirestem muhly inflorescence

Wirestem muhly

Wirestem muhly

Morphology

Culm

Initially simple, erect or ascending, later becoming bushy-branched and decumbent or sprawling; hollow, glabrous.

Blades

Flat or margins inrolled, lax, 1.5 to 5 inches long, 1/12 to 1/4 inch wide, glabrous or roughened.

Sheath

Rounded to slightly keeled, glabrous.

Ligule

Membranous, lacerate-ciliate, less than 1/16 inch.

Inflorescence

Panicles, numerous, slender, spike-like, 1 to 5 inches long, ca. 2/5 inch wide, terminal and axillary; branches short, appressed to main axis; axillary panicles borne at many nodes, only partially exserted.

Spikelets

Short-stalked, 1-flowered, narrowly lanceolate, 1/10 to 1/6 inch long excluding awns; glumes nearly equal, strongly 1-nerved, narrowly lanceolate to linear, 1/12 to 1/6 inch long, acute, acuminate or short awn-tipped, usually surpassing lemma; lemma lanceolate, glabrous, tuft of short hairs at base, tip awnless or awned.

Ecology

Habitat

Moist depressions of upland prairies, banks of streams, lake margins, roadsides, bottomland woods, mesic upland woods.

Distribution

Principally east 1/3 of Kansas, but scattered throughout

Additional Notes