2. Muhlenbergia bushii R.W. Pohl (nodding muhly)

Pl. 153 a, b; Map 612

M. brachyphylla Bush

Plants with well‑developed, scaly rhizomes, forming tufts. Flowering stems 30–95 cm long, erect or ascending (sometimes spreading later in the season), glabrous and shiny between the nodes. Leaf sheaths glabrous, rounded or slightly angled on the back, the ligule 0.2–0.7 mm long. Leaf blades 1–15 cm long, 2–6 mm wide, flat, glabrous or roughened. Inflorescences dense, spikelike, terminal and lateral panicles 4–15 cm long, linear in outline, the base (especially in the usually abundant lateral inflorescences) usually enclosed by the subtending leaf sheath, the branches short, appressed to the main axis. Spikelets 2.5–3.6 mm long (excluding the awns), short‑stalked, the stalks shorter than the spikelets. Glumes about the same length, 1.2–2.5 mm long, 1/2–2/3 as long as the floret, linear to narrowly lanceolate, only slightly overlapping at the base, the margins straight and tapered gradually to the sharply pointed tip, strongly 1‑nerved, awnless. Lemma with the body 2.5–3.6 mm long, lanceolate, the tip sharply pointed, awnless or sometimes with an awn 0.2–2.0(–8.0) mm long, with a tuft of short hairs at the base, otherwise glabrous or roughened along the midnerve. Anthers 0.3–0.6 mm long. Fruits 1.4–2.0 mm long. 2n=40. August–October.

Scattered nearly throughout the state (Indiana to Wisconsin and Nebraska south to Louisiana and Texas; also Maryland to North Carolina). Bottomland forests, mesic upland forests, bases and ledges of bluffs, banks of streams and rivers, fens, and less commonly glades, often on calcareous substrates.