''Muhlenbergia richardsonis'', known by the common name mat muhly, is a species of

grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

. It is native to North America, where it can be found throughout much of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

, the western half of the contiguous United States through

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, and in

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Description

''Muhlenbergia richardsonis'' is a

rhizomatous In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...

perennial grass producing knotted, mat-forming stems up to about 40 centimeters long. The blue-green leaves are up to 5 or 6 centimeters long. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

is a narrow cylindrical series of tightly appressed branches bearing gray-green, single-flowered spikelets 2 or 3 millimeters long.

Habitat

''Muhlenbergia richardsonis'' grows in a number of

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

types including talus and meadows in

alpine Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National Pa ...

mountain environments, wet

alkaline In chemistry, an alkali (; from ar, القلوي, al-qaly, lit=ashes of the saltwort) is a base (chemistry), basic, ionic compound, ionic salt (chemistry), salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. An alkali can also be defined as ...

and

saline soil Soil salinity is the salt content in the soil; the process of increasing the salt content is known as salinization. Salts occur naturally within soils and water. Salination can be caused by natural processes such as mineral weathering or by the ...

s, desert

arroyos Arroyo often refers to: * Arroyo (creek), an intermittently dry creek Arroyo may also refer to: People * Arroyo (surname) Places United States ;California * Arroyo Burro Beach, a public beach park in Santa Barbara County, California * Arroyo ...

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant community and geographical feature found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterranean c ...

, forests and woodlands. It is a species of botanical interest for being an alpine plant utilizing

C4 carbon fixation carbon fixation or the Hatch–Slack pathway is one of three known photosynthetic processes of carbon fixation in plants. It owes the names to the 1960's discovery by Marshall Davidson Hatch and Charles Roger Slack that some plants, when sup ...

, reported at higher altitudes than any other C4 plant in North America. It occurs at of elevation in

, such as in the White MountainsJepson Manual Treatment
/ref> and meters high in

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

.Schultz, J. (2002)
Conservation Assessment of Mat Muhly (''Muhlenbergia richardsonis'').
USDA Forest Service, Eastern Region.

Prairie fens

This grass is the only known food plant for the

leafhopper A leafhopper is the common name for any species from the family Cicadellidae. These minute insects, colloquially known as hoppers, are plant feeders that suck plant sap from grass, shrubs, or trees. Their hind legs are modified for jumping, and a ...

'' Flexamia huroni'', which lives only in

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. The grass is limited to alkaline prairie fens in the area, an increasingly rare habitat type, making the leafhopper a species of concern itself.

References

External links

USDA Plants Profile - ''Muhlenbergia richardsonis''Grass Manual Treatment''Muhlenbergia richardsonis'' - Photo gallery
richardsonis Alpine flora Native grasses of California Grasses of Canada Grasses of the United States Flora of the Western United States Flora of the Cascade Range Flora of the California desert regions Flora of the Great Basin Flora of the Rocky Mountains Flora of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Flora of Alaska Flora of Michigan Natural history of the Transverse Ranges North American desert flora Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Chloridoideae-stub