Melica californica

Scribn.
Common names: California melic
Endemic
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 24. Treatment on page 93.

Plants densely cespitose, not rhizomatous. Culms 50-130 cm, not forming corms; lower nodes strigose; internodes usually smooth, sometimes puberulent below the nodes, lower 2-3 internodes usually swollen. Sheaths glabrous or pilose; ligules 1.5-4 mm; blades 1.5-5 mm wide, strigose on both surfaces. Panicles 4-30 cm; branches 3-6 cm, appressed, straight, with 4-15 spikelets; pedicels straight; disarticulation above the glumes. Spikelets 5-15 mm, with 2-5 bisexual florets; rachilla internodes 1.1-1.6 mm. Lower glumes 3.5-12 mm long, 2.5-3 mm wide, 3-5-veined; upper glumes 5-13 mm long, 2-2.5 mm wide, 5-7-veined; lemmas 5-9 mm, glabrous, smooth to scabrous, 7-9-veined, veins inconspicuous, apices rounded to broadly acute, unawned; paleas about 3/4 the length of the lemmas; anthers 3, 1.8-3 mm; rudiments 1.4-3 mm, clublike, not resembling the bisexual florets, truncate to acute. 2n= 18.

Discussion

Melica californica grows from sea level to 2100 m, in a wide range of habitats, from dry, rocky, exposed hillsides to moist woods. Its range extends from Oregon to California. It differs from M. bulbosa in its more obtuse spikelets and less strongly colored lemmas, as well as in not having corms.

Melica californica var. nevadensis Boyle supposedly differs from var. californica in having shorter spikelets (averaging 8, rather than 10, mm), more acute glumes and lemmas, blunter rudiments, and in being restricted to the lower Sierra Nevada; the two varieties intergrade, both morphologically and geographically.

Boyle (1945) obtained vigorous sterile hybrids from crosses between M. californica and M. imperfecta, but found no natural hybrids.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.

"decumbent" is not a number.

... more about "Melica californica"
membranous +  and scarious +
0.18 cm1.8 mm <br />0.0018 m <br /> (0.3 cm3 mm <br />0.003 m <br />) +
rounded +  and broadly acute +
Mary E. Barkworth +
Scribn. +
1 (?) +  and 3 (?) +
straight +
basal +  and apical +
0 cm0 mm <br />0 m <br /> (1.2 cm12 mm <br />0.012 m <br />) +
keeled +  and rounded +
pseudopetiolate +  and branching +
persistent +
intravaginal +, extravaginal +, branching +  and basal +
swelling +
folded +  and flat +
0.15 cm1.5 mm <br />0.0015 m <br /> (0.5 cm5 mm <br />0.005 m <br />) +
3 cm30 mm <br />0.03 m <br /> (6 cm60 mm <br />0.06 m <br />) +
California melic +
not branching +
ascending +  and erect +
50 cm500 mm <br />0.5 m <br /> (130 cm1,300 mm <br />1.3 m <br />) +
not woody +
Wash. +, W.Va. +, D.C +, Wis. +, Ariz. +, N.Mex. +, Oreg. +, Tex. +, Fla. +, Wyo. +, N.J. +, La. +, Kans. +, S.Dak. +, Colo. +, Mont. +, Nev. +, Tenn. +, N.C. +, S.C. +, Pa. +, N.Y. +, Nebr. +, Okla. +, Calif. +, Idaho +, Va. +, Alta. +, B.C. +, Ont. +, Que. +, Sask. +, Alaska +, Ala. +, Ark. +, Ill. +, Ga. +, Ind. +, Iowa +, Md. +, Ohio +, Utah +, Mo. +, Minn. +, Mich. +, Miss. +  and Ky. +
0 +  and 1/3 +
liquid +, soft +  and hard +
capillary +
sometimes longer +
2 +  and 5 +
compressed +
reduced +
shorter than to longer than the adjacent lemmas +
subtending +
chartaceous +  and membranous +
uncinate +
smooth to scabrous +
0.5 cm5 mm <br />0.005 m <br /> (0.9 cm9 mm <br />0.009 m <br />) +
coriaceous +  and membranous +
0.15 cm1.5 mm <br />0.0015 m <br /> (0.4 cm4 mm <br />0.004 m <br />) +
inconspicuous +
lanceolate +
0.35 cm3.5 mm <br />0.0035 m <br /> (1.2 cm12 mm <br />0.012 m <br />) +
2.5mm +  and 3mm +
concealed +  and prominent +
2 +  and 1 +
well-developed +
reduced +
4 cm40 mm <br />0.04 m <br /> (30 cm300 mm <br />0.3 m <br />) +
scabrous +  and strigose +
dry +  and fleshy +
pilose +  and glabrous +
4 +  and 15 +
not viviparous +
compressed +
0.5 cm5 mm <br />0.005 m <br /> (1.5 cm15 mm <br />0.015 m <br />) +
1 +  and 3 +
simple +  and compound +
collar-like +
2 (?) +  and 3 (?) +
Gramineae +
Melica californica +
species +
membranous +
0.5 cm5 mm <br />0.005 m <br /> (1.3 cm13 mm <br />0.013 m <br />) +
2mm +  and 2.5mm +
inconspicuous +
plant +  and cespitose +
aquatic +  and terrestrial +