1. Melica nitens (Scribn.) Nutt. ex Piper (three‑flowered melic grass, Ladd’s favorite)

Pl. 158 h–j; Map 640

Plants perennial, with short rhizomes, forming clumps. Flowering stems 50–150 cm long, glabrous. Leaf sheaths glabrous or sometimes roughened or hairy. Leaf blades 5–25 cm long, 3–10(–15) mm wide, flat at maturity, glabrous or sometimes roughened or hairy. Spikelets 8–15 mm long, pendant at maturity, oblong‑obovate in outline, usually somewhat flattened, disarticulating below the glumes, with (2)3 fertile florets with tips at different levels and a straight, terminal structure distinctly different in appearance from the fertile florets, this consisting of 2 reduced sterile florets rolled into a small, club‑shaped mass. Glumes 3‑ or 5‑nerved, bluntly pointed at the tip, glabrous or somewhat roughened, usually with broad, thin, papery margins. Lower glume 5–8 mm long, broadly elliptic‑obovate. Upper glume 7–9 mm long, ovate to obovate. Lemmas of fertile florets 7–11 mm long, narrowly to broadly ovate, rounded to bluntly pointed at the thin, papery tip, 5–9‑nerved, often with additional, fainter nerves near the base, awnless, glabrous or roughened along the nerves. Paleas shorter than the lemmas, usually hairy along the nerves. Stamens 3. Fruits 2.5–3.0 mm long, narrowly elliptic in outline, slightly flattened, with a shallow, longitudinal groove, yellow to greenish brown, shiny. 2n=36. April–July.