Muhlenbergia richardsonis

Mat muhly

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Mat muhly is a California native perennial grass found in the Klamath Ranges, Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, southern Coast Ranges, Transverse Ranges, San Jacinto Mountains, Great Basin, and desert mountains in open sites, moist meadows, and along stream edges at elevations of 1,220 to 3,670 meters. Flowering from June to August, this plant produces yellow to purple anthers with small, narrow cylindrical flower clusters. Growing with decumbent to erect stems 5 to 40 centimeters tall, it forms a distinctive matted growth with often swollen lower nodes. Its leaves are narrow, 1 to 5 centimeters long and 1 to 2 millimeters wide, with short ligules that are acute to truncate. The plant develops through scaly rhizomes, creating dense, low-growing mats in alpine and montane environments.

Habitat: Open sites, +- moist meadows, talus slopes, along streams

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: 1220-3670 m

Bioregions: KR, CaRH, SNH, SCoRO, TR, SnJt, GB, DMtns

California counties: Modoc, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Alpine, Fresno, Tuolumne, Mono, Lassen, Tulare, El Dorado, Inyo, Mariposa, Nevada, Siskiyou, Riverside, Plumas, San Diego, Placer, Sierra, Ventura, Shasta, San Joaquin, Butte, Stanislaus, Kern, Madera, Amador, Trinity, Santa Barbara, Calaveras

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