Muhlenbergia mexicana (L.). Wirestem Muhly Habit: Perennial, with scaly creeping rhizomes. Culms: Decumbent, prostrate, or erect, rooting at the lower nodes, freely branching and very leafy, top-heavy and bushy, glabrous below the nodes 15-60 cm. tall. Blades: Flat, scabrous, 4-15 cm. long, 2-6 mm. wide, those of the branches smaller. Sheaths: The uppermost of the branches crowded and overlapping, the lower usually shorter than the internodes, smooth or slightly scabrous. Ligule: A short membrane. Inflorescence: Numerous, contracted panicles 5-15 cm. long, terminal on the culm and its many rather short branches, usually partly enclosed within the upper sheath, mostly densely spikelet bearing from the base. Spikelets: 2.5-3 cm. long (including a short awn sometimes 4 mm.), 1-flowered, flower perfect, rachilla disarticulating above the glumes. Glumes: Subequal, 2-3 mm. long or slightly more, narrow, tapering into an awn tip, scabrous especially on the keel. Lemmas: About equal to the glumes variable, 3-nerved, acuminate, short pilose at base, awnless or short awned. Palea: Thin, about equal to the lemma. Habitat: Wet meadows, thickets and waste places. June-September. Kansas Range: East three fourths. Synonyms: Muhlenbergia ambigua Torr. Muhlenbergia foliosa (Roemer & J.A. Schultes) Trin. Muhlenbergia foliosa (Roemer & J.A. Schultes) Trin. ssp. ambigua (Torr.) Scribn. Muhlenbergia foliosa (Roemer & J.A. Schultes) Trin. ssp. setiglumis (S. Wats.) Scribn. Muhlenbergia mexicana (L.) Trin. var. filiformis (Willd.) Scribn.