Northeast Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Muhlenbergia glomerata (Willd.) Trin.
- Family: Grass (Gramineae)
- Flowering: August-October
- Field Marks: This species is distinguished by its thick, spike-like, usually purplish panicles, its linear nearly equal glumes, and its finely hairy internodes.
- Habitat: Wet meadows, bogs, fens, along shores.
- Habit: Perennial herb from thick, scaly rhizomes.
- Stems: Upright, branched, up to 3 1/2 feet long, with finely hairy internodes.
- Leaves: Elongated, flat, rough at least along the edges, up to 1/4 inch wide.
- Flowers: Borne in narrow, thickened, spike-like panicles, the panicles usually purplish, up to 4 inches long, up to 3/4 inch thick; spikelets 1-flowered, purplish, 1/6-1/3 inch long.
- Glumes: Linear-subulate, awned, up to 1/3 inch long, smooth, nearly equal in size.
- Lemmas: Lanceolate, pointed at the tip, awnless, about 1/6 inch long, hairy at the base.
- Stamens: 3.
- Pistils: Ovary superior, smooth.
- Fruits: Grains 1/10-1/8 inch long, smooth, more or less enclosed by the lemmas.
- Notes: Gleason and Cronquist call this family Poaceae.
Previous Species -- Wire-stem Muhly (Muhlenbergia frondosa)
Return to Species List -- Group 2
Next Species -- Mexican Muhly (Muhlenbergia mexicana)
