Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center


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Northeast Wetland Flora

Field Office Guide to Plant Species

Bog Muhly
Muhlenbergia uniflora (Muhl.) Fernald

JPG -- Species Photo JPG -- Distribution Map

Family: Grass (Gramineae)
Flowering: July-October
Field Marks: This Muhlenbergia differs by its open panicles, the very slender stems that arise from the base of last year's stems, and the very short glumes in relation to the lemma.
Habitat: Bogs, wet shores.
Habit: Matted perennial herb from thickened rootstocks, without rhizomes, arising from the base of last year's stems.
Stems: Very slender, decumbent, rooting at the nodes, matted, up to 1 1/4 feet tall, smooth.
Leaves: Elongated, flat, smooth, 1/12-1/10 inch wide.
Flowers: Several in a widely branching panicle, the panicle up to 8 inches long and up to 3 inches wide, the branches very slender to nearly thread-like; spikelets usually 1-flowered, purplish, up to 1/10 inch long, on thread-like stalks much longer than the spikelets.
Glumes: Ovate to lanceolate, rounded or pointed at the tip, subequal in length, smooth, about 1/2 as long as the lemma.
Lemmas: Lanceolate, rounded at the tip, smooth, up to 1/10 inch long.
Sepals: 0.
Petals: 0.
Stamens: 3.
Pistils: Ovary superior, smooth.
Fruits: Grains ellipsoid.
Notes: Gleason and Cronquist call this family Poaceae.

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U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/plants/florane/species/2/muhlunif.htm
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Page Last Modified: Thursday, 03-Aug-2006 11:39:25 EDT
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