MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



along rivers, irrigation ditches, rocky 

 slopes, dry ground and waste places, 

 occasionally in wet meadows, swamps, 

 and moist canyon bottoms, found in a 

 wide range of habitats; Manitoba to 

 Alberta; Michigan and Indiana to 

 Washington, Oklahoma, and Ari- 

 zona. Specimens from Orono, Maine, 

 and Washington, D. C, were doubt- 

 less from cultivated plants. 



34. Muhlenbergia californica 

 Vasey. (Fig. 553.) Perennial, pale, 

 leafy, the base more or less creeping 

 and rhizomatous; culms ascending, 

 somewhat woody below, 30 to 60 cm. 

 tall, branching below; sheaths sca- 

 berulous; blades flat, 3 to 6 mm. 

 wide, scabrous, usually short; panicle 

 narrow, dense but interrupted, 7 to 

 15 cm. long; spikelets 3 to 4 mm. 

 long, the glumes slightly shorter, 

 scabrous, acuminate, awn-tipped; 

 lemma scabrous, acuminate, awn- 

 tipped, with sparse callus hairs about 

 half as long as the lemma. % — 

 Stream borders and gullies, foothills 

 and mountain slopes up to 2,000 m., 

 confined to southern California. 



393 



Figure 553. — Muhlenbergia 

 glumes and floret, X 10. 



californica 

 (Parish 21 



, Plant, X 1; 

 13, Calif.) 



Figure 554. — A, Muhlenbergia sobolifera. Plant, X 1; glumes and floret, X 10. (Metcalf 1589, N. Y.) 



B, Var. setigera, X 10. (Reverchon 1049, Tex.) 



35. Muhlenbergia sobolifera 



(Muhl.) Trin. (Fig. 554, A.) Peren- 

 nial, with numerous creeping scaly 

 rhizomes 2 to 3 mm. thick; culms 

 erect, slender, solitary or few in a 

 tuft, glabrous, 60 to 100 cm. tall, 



sparingly branching, the branches 

 erect; blades flat, spreading, sca- 

 brous, those of the main culm 5 to 

 15 cm. long, 3 to 8 mm. wide, oc- 

 casionally larger, at time of flowering 

 aggregate along the middle part of 



