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Published In: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 3: 232. 1885. (Ann. New York Acad. Sci.) Name publication detailView in Biodiversity Heritage Library
 

Project Name Data (Last Modified On 9/1/2009)
Acceptance : Accepted
Project Data     (Last Modified On 7/9/2009)
Status: Native

 

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4. Scleria reticularis Michx. var. pubescens Britton (Muhlenberg’s nut grass)

Pl. 87 d, e; Map 329

S. muhlenbergii Steud.

Plants perennial, sometimes with very short rhizomes (annual elsewhere). Aerial stems 15–80 cm long, clustered, erect to spreading, sometimes flattened somewhat near the tip, glabrous or rarely sparsely hairy. Leaf sheaths often narrowly winged or roughened along the angles, glabrous or nearly so, green or tinged with purple in the basal half, the convex tip opposite the leaf blade 2–3 mm long, broadly rounded, hairy or glabrous. Leaf blades 1–30 cm long, 2–5(–8) mm wide, glabrous or sparsely hairy, the margins and main veins sometimes roughened. Inflorescences few to several loose clusters of spikelets, these arranged in a short panicle. Bracts erect to ascending, 0.7–4.0 cm long. Spikelets 2–4 mm long, the scales green to straw-colored or purplish tinged. Fruits with the main body 1.5–2.5 mm long at maturity, broadly ovate to nearly circular in outline, the tip with a minute point, the surface with a complex, netlike or honeycomb-like pattern of ridges and often also with horizontal wrinkles; minutely hairy, usually in patches, dull, white to light gray, the basal disk strongly 3-lobed, lacking tubercles, the lobes appressed to the base of the main body of the fruit. August–October.

Uncommon in the southern portion of the Ozarks (eastern U.S. west to Wisconsin and Texas; Mexico, Central America, South America, Caribbean Islands). Mesic upland and bottomland prairies, especially along watercourses.

This species is widespread in the New World but known from few collections in Missouri. The stems tend to be more slender than those of the superficially similar S. triglomerata and are frequently somewhat lax and supported by other vegetation. The inflorescences are relatively loosely flowered, with the spikelets in more of a panicle than a headlike cluster. When produced, axillary inflorescences are usually on long, slender stalks that arch or droop. Although all of the Missouri specimens collected to date have hairy fruits, elsewhere plants produce fruits that range from densely hairy to totally glabrous. The unusual 3-lobed, “calyx-like” basal disk is a more stable character for this species’ determination than the pubescence of the fruits.

 
 


 

 
 
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