Bamboo Muhly

Muhlenbergia dumosa Scribn.; Vasey, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb 3:71. 1892.
Muhlenbergia dumosa var. minor Scribn.; Beal, Grasses N. Am. 2: 261. 1896. (Type from Mexico, Pringle 2J55.)
Perennial, with short stout creeping scaly rhizomes; culms robust, solid, thick and scaly at base (here as much as 6 mm. thick), the main culm erect or leaning, 1-3 meters tall, the lower part clothed with bladeless sheaths, freely branching at the middle and upper nodes, the branches numerous, fascicled, spreading, decompound, the ultimate branchlets filiform; sheaths glabrous, firm, very smooth, finally flattening out and separating from the culm below; ligule truncate, about 0.5 mm. long; prophyllum often prominent, protruding from the sheath as a slender ciliate appendage; blades flat or soon involute, glabrous, those of the branches very numerous, mostly less than 5 cm. long and 1 mm. wide; panicles numerous on the branches, commonly exceeded by the leaves, 1-3 cm. long, narrow, somewhat flexuous, the axis scabrous, the very short pedicels pubescent; spikelets, excluding the awn, about 3 mm. long, the glurpes scarcely half as long, thin, pale with a green midnerve, usually minutely awn-tipped; lemma narrow, pubescent about the base and margins, pale with green nerves, the awn from the slightly tufted apex, flexuous, 3-5 mm. long; palea narrower than the lemma, acuminate, pilose below, the keels green. The plant has the aspect of a small bamboo.
Type locautv: Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona (Pringle in 1884). Distribution: Canyons and valley flats, southern Arizona to Jalisco.

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Rhizomes present, Rhizome elongate, creeping, stems distant, Stems woody, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stems branching above base or distally at nodes, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems with inflorescence 1-2 m tall, Stems with inflorescence 2-6 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly basal, below middle of stem, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distich ous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf sheath enlarged, inflated or distended, Leaves borne on branches, Leaf blades disarticulating from sheath, deciduous at ligule, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades very narrow or filiform, less than 2 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blade margins folded, involute, or conduplicate, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence an open panicle, openly paniculate, branches spreading, Inflorescence a contracted panicle, narrowly paniculate, branches appressed or ascending, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence lax, widely spreading, branches drooping, pendulous, 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 distinctly unequal, Glumes shorter than adjacent lemma, Glumes awned, awn 1-5 mm or longer, Glumes keeled or winged, Glumes 1 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma similar in texture to glumes, Lemma 3 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma apex acute or acuminate, Lemma mucronate, very shortly beaked or awned, less than 1-2 mm, Lemma distinctly awned, more than 2-3 mm, Lemma with 1 awn, Lemma awn less than 1 cm long, Lemma awn 1-2 cm long, Lemma awned from tip, Lemma awns straight or curved to base, 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.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Muhlenbergia dumosa.

Muhlenbergia dumosa, commonly known as the bamboo muhly, is a species of grass native to Arizona and California.