Muhlenbergia sylvatica Torr.
Forest Muhly

Habit: 		Perennial with scaly creeping rhizomes, resembling M. mexicana in habit.
Culms: 		30-90 cm. tall, erect or ascending, freely branched, leafy, the branches more
		slender and lax than in M. mexicana, retrorsely strigose below the nodes.
Blades: 	Flat, rough, 5-18 cm. long, 2-6 mm. wide.
Sheaths: 	Mostly shorter than the internodes, or those of the branches overlapping,
		smooth or slightly roughened.
Ligule: 	Erose-truncate, about 1 mm. long.
Inflorescence: 	A green, slender, nodding, exserted or commonly included panicle,
		6-18 cm. long, the branches distinct, appressed, overlapping except perhaps the lower.
Spikelets: 	On long erect branches, green or straw-colored, 2.5-3 mm. long, 1-flowered,
		flower perfect, rachilla disarticulating above the glumes.
Glumes: 	Lanceolate, equal or the first shorter, rather abruptly acuminate or awn
		pointed, about 2 mm. long, scabrous.
Lemmas: 	Scabrous, tapering into a slender awn, 5-12 mm. long, 3-nerved, the hairs
		at the base about 1 mm. long.
Palea: 		Thin, about as long as the lemma, acuminate, scabrous on the nerves.
Habitat: 	Moist woods and thickets.  August-October.
Kansas Range:	Scattered in east two thirds.
Synonyms: 	Muhlenbergia sylvatica Torr. ex Gray var. robusta Fern.
		Muhlenbergia umbrosa Scribn.