Plains Muhly

Muhlenbergia cuspidata (Torr.) Rydb. Bull. Torrey Club 32: 599. 1905.
Agrostis brevifolia Nutt. Gen. 1: 44. 1818. (Type from Fort Mandan, North Dakota.) Not
Muhlenbergia brevifolia Scribn. 1896. Vilfa cuspidata Torr.; Hook. Fl. Bor. Am. 2: 238. 1839. (Basis of Muhlenbergia cuspidata Rydb.) Vii/ogracjVisTrin.M^m. Acad.St.-Pitersb. VI.6=: 104. 1840. (Type from North America.) Not
V. gracilis Trin. op. cit. 74. Sporobolus cuspidatus Wood, Bot. & Flor. ed. 1873. 385. 1873. (Based on Vilfa cuspidata Torr.) Sporobolus brevifolius Scribn. Mem. Torrey Club 5; 39. 1894. (Based on Agroslis brevifolia Nutt.) Sporobolus brevifolius Nash, in Britton. Man. 105. 1901. Not Sporobolus brevifolius Nees. 1841. Muhlertbergia brevifolia Jones. Contr. We,st. Bot. 14: 12. 1912. (Based on Agroslis brevifolia Nutt.)
Not M. frrC!'i/o/m Scribn. 1896.
Perennial in dense tufts with hard bulblike scaly bases; culms slender, wiry, erect, scabrous, several-noded, 20-40 cm. tall; sheaths glabrous except the puberulent base; ligule minute; blades flat or loosely involute, erect or ascending, more or less scabrous, mostly 5-15 cm. long, 1-2 mm. wide; panicles narrow, somewhat spikelike, interrupted, the axis and branches glabrous or slightly scabrous, the branches appressed, somewhat distant, mostly overlapping, mostly 1-2 cm. long, floriferous from near the base, bearing few to several spikelets on short pedicels; glumes subequal, acuminate-cuspidate, about two-thirds as long as the spikelet; lemma acuminate-cuspidate, minutely pubescent, 2.5-3 mm. long.
Type locality: Saskatchewan River, Rocky Mountains (Drummond) .
Distribution: Prairies and gravelly or stony slopes, Michigan to Alberta, and southward to Ohio and New Mexico.