Muhlenbergia bushii R. Pohl.
Nodding Muhly

Habit: 		Perennial with numerous slender scaly rhizomes.
Culms: 		Slender, suberect, 50 cm. tall, more or less, freely branching at the middle nodes,
		the branches lax, glabrous or obscurely scabrous below the nodes.
Blades: 	Flat, spreading, scaberulous, mostly 7-15 cm. long and 3-5 mm. wide, the lower
		shorter than the upper.
Sheaths: 	Mostly shorter than the internodes.
Ligule: 	Membranous, about 1 mm. long.
Inflorescence: 	Panicles numerous on main culm and branches, on filiform peduncles
		mostly 8-15 cm. long, slender, lax, with relatively few spikelets, often i
		ncluded at the base, the slender branches mostly appressed.
Spikelets: 	1-flowered, exclusive of the awn 3-3.5 mm. long, narrowly lanceolate,
		rachilla disarticulating above the glumes.
Glumes: 	Subequal, the second about two thirds as long as the lemma, the first
		usually slightly shorter, acute, scabrous on the keel, awntipped.
Lemmas: 	2.5-3.5 mm. long, narrow, membranous, 3-nerved, hairy towards the base
		with hairs less than 1 mm. long, glabrous to hispidulous above, tapering
		into a slender awn 3-6 mm. long, rarely shorter.
Palea: 		Thin, somewhat shorter than the lemma.
Fruit: 		Grain closely enveloped by the lemma.
Habitat: 	Low woods.
Kansas Range:	East third.
Synonyms:	Muhlenbergia brachyphylla Bush