Muhlenbergia montana

Mountain Muhly

Field view of Muhlenbergia montana, common name Mountain Muhly. So many grasses look like this at first.

Sometimes Mountain Muhly shows open inflorescences like these.

Muhlenbergia montana can show a more contracted appearance. Now you can start to see the awns.

You can see both closed and open inflorescences of Mountain Muhly.

Muhlenbergia montana seedheads can be extremely thin, especially when young.

The awns are flexuous and tend to curl together.

The glumes are unique. The lower has one awn, the upper three!

Spikelets with their twisty awns. Each has two tiny glumes that you can't see here.

Roots and thin basal leaves of Mountain Muhly.

How to Identify Mountain Muhly

  As in all Muhlys (plus Sporobolus, Agrostis, and several other grasses), there is only one floret (one "seed") in each spikelet between the glumes. The give-away for Mountain Muhly is that one of the glumes is triple-pointed. Also, the glumes are shorter than the adjacent lemmas and may be plastered tight to the lemmas, so look closely.

Similar Species

  There are many, many grasses with awned panicles or seedheads. To narrow this one down, you don't have to check every grass you see for a three-pronged glume. You can start by noting the somewhat contorted, 3/8 to 1/2 inch awns on elongate, single florets. No other Arizona grass has one three-pointed glume, while the other glume is 1-pointed.