''Glyceria melicaria'', the melic mannagrass or northeastern mannagrass, is a perennial grass found in the eastern United States. Its specific epithet ''melicaria'' means "similar to '' Melica''". Its diploid number is 40.

Description

''Glyceria melicaria'' grows erect culms from a creeping base, with the solitary or few culms growing tall. Its leaf sheaths are smooth and its

ligule A ligule (from "strap", variant of ''lingula'', from ''lingua'' "tongue") is a thin outgrowth at the junction of leaf and leafstalk of many grasses (Poaceae) and sedges. A ligule is also a strap-shaped extension of the corolla, such as that of a ...

s are translucent. Its lax, elongate leaves are long and wide, and are smooth on their bottom side but scabrous on the top. Its linear-cylindrical

panicle A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a panicle are of ...

is long and nods down towards its end. The panicle's closely appressed floral branches have thirty to upwards of sixty spikelets per branch. Its appressed spikelets are about 4 mm long and have three to four flowers. Its

glume In botany, a glume is a bract (leaf-like structure) below a spikelet in the inflorescence (flower cluster) of grasses (Poaceae) or the flowers of sedges (Cyperaceae). There are two other types of bracts in the spikelets of grasses: the lemma and ...

s are lanceolate and have acute apices. The lower glume is 1.3-2.4 mm and the upper glume is 1.7-3 mm. Its five- to seven-veined

lemma Lemma may refer to: Language and linguistics * Lemma (morphology), the canonical, dictionary or citation form of a word * Lemma (psycholinguistics), a mental abstraction of a word about to be uttered Science and mathematics * Lemma (botany), a ...

s are 1.9-2.8 mm long, with its paleas roughly the same size. The grass flowers from late June to August. ''Glyceria'' × ''gatineauensis'' is a sterile hybrid between ''

Glyceria striata ''Glyceria striata'' is a species of ''Glyceria'' which is known by the common names fowl mannagrass and ridged glyceria. It is native to much of North America, from Alaska and northern Canada to northern Mexico. It is a common bunchgrass specie ...

'' and ''G. melicaria'' which has been found to occur in Quebec and possibly West Virginia. It resembles ''G. melicaria'' but has longer and less appressed panicle branches, growing up to long. The hybrid is a triploid.

Habitat and distribution

''Glyceria melicaria'' grows in wet soils, swamps, and wet forests from New Brunswick to Ontario and south into Illinois and the northeastern United States, as well as down into the Appalachian Mountains as far south as northern Georgia.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15516948 melicaria Plants described in 1912