Hairy Muhly

Muhlenbergia villiflora Hitchcock
Vilfa pubescens Fourn. Mex. PI. Gram. 102. 1886. (Basis of Muhlenbergia villiflora Hitchc.) Not Muhlenbergia pubescens (H.B.K.) Hitchc.
Perennial; culms slender, glabrous, roughened with minute pustules, about 10 cm. tall; sheaths glabrous, shorter than the internodes; ligule less than 1 mm. long; blades involute, glabrous, falcate, spreading, 1-2 cm. long, 0.5 mm. thick when rolled; panicle narrow, pale, about 1.5 cm. long, the few short somewhat distant branches bearing 1-3 spikelets; glumes nearly equal, acute or apiculate, 1 mm. long or less, glabrous; lemma 3-nerved, densely villous on the lower half of the space between the lateral nerves and the margin, apiculate, about 1.5 mm. long; palea about as long as the glumes, villous between the keels on the lower part.
Type localit-: "Canon de las Minas et Victoria, inter Michiguana et Tonquecillos " (Karwinsky 1012).
Distribution: Known only from the type collection. Specimen examined in the herbarium of the Botanic Garden, Leningrad.

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Rhizomes present, Rhizome short and compact, stems close, 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 blade margins folded, involute, or conduplicate, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate 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 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 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.