Muhlenbergia fragilis

Delicate muhly

Family: Poaceae · Type: annual · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 2B.3

Delicate muhly is a rare (CNPS 2B.3) California native annual grass found in the eastern desert mountains including Clark and New York Mountains in open, limestone gravelly wash at elevations around 1,600 meters. Flowering in October, this plant produces purple-anthered flowers in open, thread-like inflorescences 10 to 30 centimeters long with branches spreading at nearly 90-degree angles. Growing with erect or spreading stems 10 to 35 centimeters tall, it has delicate, flat leaf blades 1 to 6 centimeters long and only 1 to 2 millimeters wide. Its leaves feature distinctive white-thickened midveins and a ligule with a large tooth on each side, giving the plant a unique architectural quality. The small spikelets have glumes less than 1 millimeter long and lemmas approximately 1 millimeter in length.

Habitat: Open, +- disturbed, limestone gravelly wash

Bloom period: Oct

Elevation: +- 1600 m.

Bioregions: e DMtns (Clark Mtn Range, New York Mtns)

California counties: San Bernardino

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.