Muhlenbergia richardsonis (Trin.) Rydb.

mat muhly

Mat muhly is state-listed as threatened in Maine [29].

More info for the term: cover

The degree to which mat muhly provides cover for wildlife species in Utah has been rated as follows [12]: Small mammals Fair Small nongame birds Fair Upland game birds Poor Waterfowl Poor

More info for the term: warm-season

Mat muhly is a mat-forming, strongly rhizomatous, warm-season, native, perennial grass. It forms clumps as large as 48 inches (122 cm) in diameter and grows as large as 12 inches (30.5 cm) in height by the time of maturity in August [14,21,24,25].

Mat muhly occurs from southern Yukon east to New Brunswick and Maine and south to Ohio, Nebraska, California, and Baja California. [25,30].

More info for the terms: fire regime, rhizome

Fire does not harm mat muhly to any great extent because the rhizome buds are insulated by soil [4]. There is a greater than 65% chance that at least 50% of the plants in a population will survive a fire [42].

FIRE REGIMES:
Mat muhly occurs in upland plant communities with a variety of FIRE REGIMES. The range of fire intervals reported for some species that dominate communities where mat muhly occurs are listed below. Find further fire regime information for the plant communities in which this species may occur by entering the species name in the FEIS home page under "Find FIRE REGIMES".

Community dominant Range of fire intervals (years) Utah juniper 10-30   (Juniperus osteosperma) ponderosa pine 30-41   (Pinus ponderosa var. scopulorum} quaking aspen 7-10   (Populus tremuloides) Engelmann spruce >150   (Picea engelmannii)

Mat muhly is "resistant" to fire-caused mortality [42]. It may be more vulnerable in late spring and early summer than at other times of the year [28].

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More info for the term: hemicryptophyte

Hemicryptophyte

Mat muhly grows from moist lowlands to montane prairies, highland meadows, and rocky slopes [5,12,20,25,27]. In the eastern parts of its range mat muhly is found on wet, gravelly soil. In the Intermountain region mat muhly occurs on dry to moist sites. Plants are occasional on open slopes from 5,700 to 11,000 feet (1700-3200 m) [44]. Mat muhly often grows on alkaline soil with textures ranging from sand or gravel to clayey loam. It is one of the more salt-tolerant upland grasses, sometimes forming mixed stands with halophytic species [8]. Mat muhly is found north of 60o latitude only on open, warm microsites that receive high insolation and have dry soil that heats up rapidly [38]. In the Sierra Nevada, mat muhly dominates on high-elevation sites (10,200 to 11,700 feet (3200-3658 m)) with very thin soils [31]. This species does well on disturbed sites [2,12,24,40].

Elevational ranges vary as follows [12]:

6,500 to 9,500 feet (2,000-2,900 m) in Colorado
4,800 to 8,000 feet (1,500-2,400 m) in Montana
7,000 to 10,500 feet (2,100-3,200 m) in Utah
5,000 to 9,900 feet (1,500-3,000 m) in Wyoming

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This species is known to occur in association with the following cover types (as classified by the Society of American Foresters):

206 Engelmann spruce-subalpine fir
217 Aspen
218 Lodgepole pine
219 Limber pine
220 Rocky Mountain juniper
237 Interior ponderosa pine
238 Western juniper
239 Pinyon-juniper
244 Pacific ponderosa pine-Douglas-fir
247 Jeffery pine

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This species is known to occur in the following ecosystem types (as named by the U.S. Forest Service in their Forest and Range Ecosystem [FRES] Type classification):

More info for the term: shrub

FRES11 Spruce-fir

FRES17 Elm-ash-cottonwood

FRES21 Ponderosa pine

FRES26 Lodgepole pine

FRES29 Sagebrush

FRES30 Desert shrub

FRES34 Chaparral-mountain shrub

FRES35 Pinyon-juniper

FRES36 Mountain grasslands

FRES37 Mountain meadows

FRES38 Plains grasslands

FRES39 Prairie

FRES40 Desert grasslands

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This species is known to occur in association with the following plant community types (as classified by Küchler 1964):

More info for the terms: forest, woodland

K008 Lodgepole pine-subalpine forest
K011 Western ponderosa forest
K016 Eastern ponderosa forest
K018 Pine-Douglas-fir forest
K019 Arizona pine forest
K023 Juniper-pinyon woodland
K024 Juniper steppe
K037 Mountain-mahogany-oak scrub
K039 Blackbrush
K041 Creosotebush
K053 Grama-galleta steppe
K055 Sagebrush steppe
K056 Wheatgrass-needlegrass shrubsteppe
K057 Galleta-threeawn shrubsteppe
K063 Foothills prairie
K064 Grama-needlegrass-wheatgrass
K065 Grama-buffalograss
K066 Wheatgrass-needlegrass
K067 Wheatgrass-bluestem-needlegrass
K074 Bluestem prairie
K098 Northern floodplain forest

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This species is known to occur in association with the following Rangeland Cover Types (as classified by the Society for Range Management, SRM):

More info for the terms: forb, grassland, shrubland, woodland

104 Antelope bitterbrush-bluebunch wheatgrass
105 Antelope bitterbrush-Idaho fescue
107 Western juniper/big sagebrush/bluebunch wheatgrass
109 Ponderosa pine shrubland
110 Ponderosa pine-grassland
210 Bitterbrush
211 Creosote bush scrub
212 Blackbrush
216 Montane meadows
301 Bluebunch wheatgrass-blue grama
313 Tufted hairgrass-sedge
314 Big sagebrush-bluebunch wheatgrass
315 Big sagebrush-Idaho fescue
316 Big sagebrush-rough fescue
317 Bitterbrush-bluebunch wheatgrass
322 Curlleaf mountain-mahogany-bluebunch wheatgrass
401 Basin big sagebrush
402 Mountain big sagebrush
403 Wyoming big sagebrush
408 Other sagebrush types
409 Tall forb
411 Aspen woodland
412 Juniper-pinyon woodland
602 Bluestem-praire sandreed
607 Wheatgrass-needlegrass
612 Sagebrush-grass
613 Fescue grassland
704 Blue grama-western wheatgrass
714 Grama-bluestem
908 Fescue

More info for the term: warm-season

Mat muhly is top-killed by fire. It is a warm-season species, so the period of green-up and highest susceptibility to fire injury maybe late spring and early summer [28].

More info for the terms: cover, grassland

Young mat muhly is readily eaten by livestock. Plants become less palatable as they mature. Mat muhly cures well in the northern Great Plains and is grazed by all classes of livestock, especially in the winter [12,40]. Pieper [32] reported that in a New Mexico pinyon-juniper grassland , mat muhly only comprised 8% of cattle diets over 3 years, although during 1 of these years from January to March mat muhly comprised 24% of the diet.

Mat muhly plants usually grow in scattered patches, so they are seldom sufficiently abundant to be of major importance to livestock [9,40]. On a fertilized blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis) upland range site cattle occasionally used mat muhly forage more than either blue grama or sand dropseed (Sporobolus cryptandrus). However mat muhly comprised less than 5% of the plant ground cover and was not considered a major portion of the cattle diet during any season of the year [23].

More info for the terms: grassland, marsh, natural

Mat muhly typically grows in dry meadows and open flatlands associated
with ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), lodgepole pine (P. contorta),
and fir (Abies spp.)-spruce (Picea spp.) zones. It occasionally
spreads down into sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) flatlands [37,40]. In upland meadows mat muhly is commonly associated
with needlegrass (Stipa spp.), bluegrass (Poa spp.), and mountain muhly
(Muhlenbergia montana) [40]. In the Midwest mat muhly's
associates include shrubby cinquefoil (Potentilla fruticosa), purple pitcherplant (Sarracenia purpurea), low nutrush (Scleria verticillata), and marsh arrowgrass (Triglochin palustris) [17].
Mat muhly's associates in pinyon-juniper woodlands include predominantly
singleleaf pinyon (Pinus monophylla) and Utah juniper (Juniperus osteosperma)
with an understory of big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) and
desert bitterbrush (Purshia glandulosa)[6].
In the Sierra Nevada
common associates include western yarrow (Achillea lanulosa), northwest
cinquefoil (Potentilla gracilis), sedge (Carex spp.),
rush (Juncus spp.), and bluegrass (Poa spp.) [7]. In
alpine areas of the Sierra Nevada, mat muhly is associated with
needlegrass (Stipa spp.) and wax currant (Ribes cereum),
where it is found with the krummholz form of whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) [31].
In plains grassland communities mat muhly commonly occurs with manyflowered
aster (Aster pansus), purple milkvetch (Astragalus goniatus),
Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis), and slenderstem peavine
(Lathyrus palustris) [13].



Mat muhly is described as a dominant or an indicator species in the
following community type classifications:



Classification and dynamics of subalpine meadow ecosystems in the southern Sierra Nevada [4]

Habitat characteristics of the Silver Lake mule deer range [11]

Vegetation of saline areas in Saskatchewan [13]

Natural vegetation of Oregon and Washington [19]

Plant communities and soils of an eastern South Dakota prairie [36]

More info for the term: graminoid

Graminoid

Mat muhly withstands heavy grazing because of its sod-forming habit [40].

Mat muhly is rated fair in energy value and poor in protein value [12].

AK AZ CA CO ID ME MI MN MT NE
NV NM ND OR SD UT WA WI WY

AB BC MB NB ON PQ SK YT

MEXICO

Mat muhly is valuable as a soil binder [40].

In the northern part of its range, mat muhly is rated as good
to very good forage for cattle and horses and fairly good for
domestic sheep [40]. The palatability of mat muhly for
livestock and wildlife species has been rated as follows [12]:
MT ND UT WY

Cattle Good Good Fair Fair
Domestic Sheep Fair Good Fair Fair
Horses Fair Good Fair Fair
Pronghorn ---- ---- Fair ----
Elk ---- ---- Fair ----
Mule deer ---- ---- Poor ----
Small mammals ---- ---- Fair ----
Small nongame birds ---- ---- Fair ----
Upland game birds ---- ---- Poor ----
Waterfowl ---- ---- Poor ----

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Mat muhly starts to grow late in spring except in the Southwest, were growth starts earlier. Plants bloom from July to September; seeds disperse from August to September [2,12,21,40].

More info for the terms: cover, density, frequency, grassland

It usually takes 5 to 10 years for mat muhly to recover to prefire frequency or coverage after fire [2,42]. On a grassland in quaking aspen parkland in east-central Alberta, annual early spring burning increased the percentage of seedheads present and seedhead density for mat muhly [1,2], though the increases were not statistically significant. Mat muhly was classed as an "increaser." Percent cover was 0.9 on unburned plots and 1.3 on burned plots. The difference was significant at p less than 0.01 [2]. A prescribed spring burn on a undisturbed northwestern Minnesota prairie stimulated flowering in mat muhly [30]. After a spring fire on a blue juniper-blue grama rangeland in New Mexico, the abundance of mat muhly did not change, perhaps because there was not much of it present on the site [15].

On a montane Sierra Nevada meadow, changes in mat muhly cover did not differ significantly between burned and unburned plots (p=0.44). The mean change in mat muhly percent cover from 1987 to 1988 (postfire) was as follows (s.e. in parentheses) [7]: Burned plots(n=8) Unburned plots(n=11) 0.28 (0.56) 1.00 (0.71) On nearby plots measured after the fire, mean percent cover of mat muhly was significantly greater for burned than unburned plots (p=.05). The difference could be due to prefire differences or fire effects. Mean estimated percent cover was as follows:
Burned plots(n=8) Unburned plots(n=11) 3.80 (2.0) 0.25 (0.25)

More info for the terms: ground residual colonizer, herb, rhizome

Rhizomatous herb, rhizome in soil
Ground residual colonizer (on-site, initial community)

More info for the term: seed

Mat muhly regenerates from rhizomes and by seed [26]. Grilz and Romo [22] reported that mat muhly commonly occurred in a rough fescue (Festuca altaica) prairie seedbank in Saskatchewan after a burn.

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This species can be found in the following regions of the western United States (according to the Bureau of Land Management classification of Physiographic Regions of the western United States):

5 Columbia Plateau
6 Upper Basin and Range
7 Lower Basin and Range
8 Northern Rocky Mountains
9 Middle Rocky Mountains
10 Wyoming Basin
11 Southern Rocky Mountains
12 Colorado Plateau
13 Rocky Mountain Piedmont
14 Great Plains
16 Upper Missouri Basin and Broken Lands

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More info for the term: competition

Mat muhly is common on disturbed sites, persisting but becoming less important in late seral stages. The relative abundance of mat muhly increased with the deterioration of tufted hairgrass (Deschampsia caespitosa) on overgrazed mountain rangeland in Wyoming and the Sierra Nevada[3,33]. On subirrigated and saline lowlands Montana, mat muhly increases in relative abundance with cattle grazing [45]. Mat muhly tolerates competition but not dense shade. It is usually a minor constituent of undisturbed mountain meadows in the Sierra Nevada [34].

Muhlenbergia squarrosa (Nutt.) Torr. [43]

The scientific name of mat muhly is Muhlenbergia richardsonis (Trin.) Rydb. (Poaceae) [21,24,25,26,44].

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Rhizomes present, Rhizome elongate, creeping, stems distant, Stems trailing, spreading or prostrate, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems geniculate, decumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at nodes, Stems mat or turf forming, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades very narrow or filiform, less than 2 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence a contracted panicle, narrowly paniculate, branches appressed or ascending, Inflorescence a dense slender spike-like panicle or raceme, branches contracted, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence branches more than 10 to numerous, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets laterally compressed, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 1 fertile floret, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating above the glumes, glumes persistent, Spikelets disarticulating beneath or between the florets, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes equal or subequal, Glumes shorter than adjacent lemma, Glumes 1 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma similar in texture to glumes, Lemma 3 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma apex acute or acuminate, Lemma awnless, Lemma mucronate, very shortly beaked or awned, less than 1-2 mm, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Callus or base of lemma evidently hairy, Callus hairs shorter than lemma, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea about equal to lemma, Palea 2 nerved or 2 keeled, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear.

Muhlenbergia richardsonis, known by the common name mat muhly, is a species of grass. It is native to North America, where it can be found throughout much of Canada, Alaska, the western half of the contiguous United States through California, and in Baja California, Mexico.

Muhlenbergie de Richardson

La Muhlenbergie de Richardson, Muhlenbergia richardsonis (Trin.) Rydb., est une espèce de plantes herbacées de la famille des Poaceae.

Muhlenbergia richardsonis là một loài thực vật có hoa trong họ Hòa thảo. Loài này được (Trin.) Rydb. mô tả khoa học đầu tiên năm 1905.