Longtongue Muhly

Muhlenbergia longiligula Hitchc. Am. Jour. Bot. 21: 136
1934.
Epicampes ligulaia Scribn.; Vasey, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 58. 1892. (Basis of Muhlenbergia
longiligula Hitchc.) Not Muhlenbergia ligulaia Scribn. & Merr. Epicampes anomala Scribn.; Heal, Grasses N. Am. 2: 311. 1896. (Type from Chihuahua, Pringle
1423. An abnormal form.) Not Muhlenbergia anomalis Fourn. 1886. Epicampes distichophylla var. mutica Scribn.; Real, Grasses N. Am. 2: 308. 1896. (Type from
Arizona, Tourney 740.) Epicampes siricta var. mutica Jones, Conlr. West. Bot. 14: 6. 1912. (Based on E. distichophylla
var. mutica Scribn.)
Perennial; culms erect, densely cespito.se, glabrous, about 1 m. tall, the base hard, pale, cylindric, the lower sheaths expanded, overlapping but not strongly compressed-keeled; sheaths glabrous; liguIc firm, about 1 cm. long, broadly decurrent along the summit of the sheath; blades elongate, flat to subinvolute, very scabrous, 2-5 mm. wide; panicle narrow, somewhat loose, erect, pale or dark, 20-40 cm. long, the axis scaberulous, the branches ascending or appressed, the lower as much as 10 cm. long; glumes subequal, acutish, usually glabrous, 2-3 mm. long; lemma about as long as the glumes or a little longer, glabrous, awnless, or rarely with a minute awn.
Type locality*: Santa Rita Mountains. Arizona {Pringle in 1884).
DisTRiBCTiON': Mountain slopes and rocky pine woods, western New Mexico, Arizona, southern Nevada. Sonora, and Chihuahua.

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 with inflorescence 1-2 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Le aves 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 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blade margins folded, involute, or conduplicate, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Leaf blades scabrous, roughened, or wrinkled, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence an open panicle, openly paniculate, branches spreading, 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 disa rticulating 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 glabrous, Lemma apex acute or acuminate, Lemma awnless, Lemma mucronate, very shortly beaked or awned, less than 1-2 mm, 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.