''Muhlenbergia utilis'' 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 ...

known by the common name aparejograss.

Distribution

It is native to North and Central America, where it can be found throughout the south-western United States and

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 ...

, through Mexico, as far south as Costa Rica. It grows in wet

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 ...

s, including riverbanks and meadows, sometimes in

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 ...

soils.

Description

''Muhlenbergia utilis'' is a rhizomatous perennial grass producing decumbent stems up to about 30 centimeters long. The leaves are no more than 3 to 5 centimeters long and just a few millimeters wide. 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 small, narrow, partially sheathed series of short branches bearing small spikelets.

External links

Jepson Manual Treatment - ''Muhlenbergia utilis''USDA Plants Profile; Muhlenbergia utilisGrass Manual Treatment''Muhlenbergia utilis'' - Photo gallery
utilis Bunchgrasses of North America Grasses of Mexico Grasses of the United States Native grasses of California Flora of Central America Flora of Costa Rica Flora of Northwestern Mexico Flora of the Southwestern United States Flora of New Mexico Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of the Transverse Ranges {{Chloridoideae-stub