keys to the vascular plants of east texas - Botanical Research ...

980 POACEAE/MONANTHOCHLOE
geniculate awn 5–12 mm long. No escaped East TX specimens have been seen, but this species
is widely cultivated, persists, and possibly escapes; no county distribution map is provided; se
Canada (Ont.) and much of the e 1/2 of the U.S., also CA, CO, and NM. Fall. Native of e Asia.
Plants with white cross bands have been recognized as forma zebrina (G. Nicholson) Nakai
(Yatskievych 1999). This species is “the subject of extensive field trials as fuel and raw material
for making paper and chipboard.” (Watson & Dallwitz 1999). I
MONANTHOCHLOE Engelm. SHORE GRASS
AA C4 genus of 2 species (Thieret 2003a) ranging from s U.S. to Argentina, occurring along
the coast in North America and in saltpans in South America. It is apparently related to
Distichlis (Clayton & Renvoize 1986) but differs in its highly reduced inflorescences (Thieret
2003a). Hybrids between the two genera have been reported (Stephenson 1972). (Greek: monos,
single, anthos, flower, and chloe, grass, in reference to the unisexual flowers or the usually solitary
spikelets) (subfamily Chloridoideae, tribe Cynodonteae)
REFERENCES: Villamil 1969; Thieret 2003a.
Monanthochloe littoralis Engelm., (of the seashore), SHORE GRASS, DWARF-STAND SALT GRASS, KEY
GRASS. Dioecious, creeping and mat-forming, rhizomatous and extensively stoloniferous, wiry
perennial; flowering culms short (8–25 cm tall), stiff, erect to ascending, much-branched; leaves
cauline, clustered, overlapping, conspicuously distichous; ligule minute, membranous, ciliate;
leaf blades short (usually � 1(–1.5) cm long), 1–2(–3) mm wide, subulate, often obtuse or with a
minute mucro, bluish green or grayish green; inflorescence typically reduced to a single(–few)
spikelet, terminal(–subterminal), very inconspicuous, enclosed and obscured by the uppermost
leaf sheaths; spikelet usually with 3–5 florets, the upper ones rudimentary; disarticulation of
pistillate spikelet at lower rachilla nodes; glumes lacking. Mainly salt flats and coastal marshes,
brackish or saline conditions; Fayette (Turner et al. 2003) and Gonzales (Gould 1975b) cos. in s
part of East TX; L. Brown (pers. comm.) questions the identity of these two inland collections);
primarily Gulf Prairies and Marshes and adjacent South TX Plains; CA, FL, LA, and TX. Mar–May.
MUHLENBERGIA Schreb. MUHLY
Ours perennials, with or without rhizomes; ligule a membrane; inflorescence a panicle, open
and widely spreading to contracted and spike-like; spikelets usually 1-flowered, disarticulating
above the glumes; glumes 1-veined or veinless, rarely 3–5-veined; lemma 3(–5)-veined, awned or
awnless; palea 2-veined; stamens 3.
AA genus of ca. 155 species primarily of tropical and warm areas of the Americas, with a few
(6 species) in s Asia (Peterson 2000, 2003b). The genus is important in arid and semi-arid regions,
and the species are characterized by C4 photosynthesis (an advantage in arid environments)
(Watson & Dallwitz 1992). Both morphological and some molecular data suggest that
Muhlenbergia is related to Sporobolus (Clayton & Renvoize 1986; Hilu & Alice 2000). However,
recent molecular data (Hilu & Alice 2001) link Muhlenbergia with genera such as Aegopogon,
Schedonnardus, and Bouteloua and raise questions about the monophyly of Muhlenbergia.
Yatskievych (1999) pointed out that in Missouri, the 3-veined lemmas of Muhlenbergia distinguish
it from most members of the similar genus Sporobolus, which is usually characterized by
1-veined lemmas (except S. ozarkanus and S. vaginiflorus with faintly 3-veined lemmas). Those
two Sporobolus species are clearly distinguished by being annuals and having all or most of
their inflorescences enclosed within leaf sheaths, versus Muhlenbergia species being perennials
with at least some inflorescences conspicuous and exserted. The same situation applies to
East TX. (Named for Gotthilf Henry Ernest Muhlenberg, 1753–1815, distinguished American
botanist and Lutheran minister of PA) (subfamily Chloridoideae, tribe Cynodonteae)
REFERENCES: Scribner 1907; Soderstrom 1967; Pohl 1969; Kurtz & Sutherland 1977; Morden &