Muhlenbergia ligularis (Hack.) Hitchc.

Loosely tufted annuals to short-lived perennials. Culms 2−12 cm tall, 0.2−0.4 mm diameter just below the panicle, erect or decumbent, slender, glabrous, sometimes flowering the first year, up to 15 cm broad, dying in the centre, profusely branched below, a short branchlet with fascicled leaves borne at each node, with 4−6 nodes; internodes 2−20 mm long. Leaf sheaths 2−20 mm long, generally shorter than the internodes, glabrous, ridged, flattened by the densely fascicled branches; ligules 0.6−2.5 mm long, membranous to hyaline, apex truncate to rounded; blades 0.3−2.2 cm long, 0.8−1.5 mm wide, flat or folded, prominently veined, thick, firm, usually with whitish-thickened midvein and margins, conspicuously crystalline or spiculate on both surfaces, otherwise glabrous below, sparsely scaberulous above and along margins, tapering to a boat shaped tip. Panicles 1.0−3.0 cm long, 0.3−1.4 cm wide, long exserted or included in the uppermost sheath, loosely contracted; branches 5−9 mm long, one per node, appressed or reflexed at maturity up to 70° from the culm axis; pedicels 1−3 mm long, stiff, densely scabrous, spiculate, erect. Spikelets 1.5−3.0 mm long, often plumbeous to reddish-purple; glumes 1.0−1.9 mm long, subequal, glabrous, apex acute to obtuse, often minutely erose, greenish-grey; lower glumes 1.0−1.7 mm long, 1-veined; upper glumes 1.1−1.9 mm long, 1-veined or occasionally 3-veined; lemmas 1.5−3.0 mm long, lanceolate, 3-veined, keeled, glabrous, mottled with greenish-black areas or dark greenish mottles on a pale background, apex minutely scaberulous, acuminate, entire or mucronate; mucro rarely more than 1 (−1.2) mm long; paleas 1.4−2.9 mm long, lanceolate, glabrous; anthers 0.8−1.1 mm long, purplish becoming pale. Caryopses 0.8−1.2 mm long, elliptic to fusiform, brownish.

This species ranges from Guatemala and Costa Rica (Pohl 1980, at Chirripo Grande) to Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru and Argentina.

Muhlenbergia ligularis là một loài thực vật có hoa trong họ Hòa thảo. Loài này được (Hack.) Hitchc. mô tả khoa học đầu tiên năm 1927.