Muhlenbergia setarioides E. Fourn.

Muhlenbergia setarioides I'ourn. Mcx. PI. Gram. 84. 1886
Muhlenbergia sylvalica var. setarioides Beal, Grasses N. Am. 2: 249. 1896. (Based on M. setarioides
Kourn.) Muhlenbergia polypogonoides Hack. Ann. Nat. Hofmus. Wicn 17: 255. 1902. (Type from Mexico,
Schmil: 862.)
Perennial; culms slender, glabrous, branching, straggling, usually with long decumbent or creeping rooting base, many-noded, often a meter or more long; sheaths glabrous or minutely roughened, mostly shorter than the internodcs; ligule rather prominent, thin, lacerate or dentate, 1-2 mm. long; blades thin, flat, rather lax, scabrous on both surfaces, somewhat narrowed toward base, 2-12 cm. long, 3-8 mm. wide; panicles numerous, terminating the culms and branches, rather lax or nodding, narrow, interrupted or almost spikelike, 5-15 cm. long, the axis nearly glabrous, the branches and short pedicels scabrous, the former ascending or appressed, as much as 2 cm. long, or rarely as much as 4 cm., the spikelets crowded, the lateral ones almost sessile; glumes nearly equal or the second longer, thin, pale with a green midnerve, scabrous on the keel, mostly 1.5-2 mm. long; lemma lanceolate-terete, short-pilose on the lower part, scabrous above, pale, rather prominently 5-nerved, acute, about 2 mm. long, awned, the awn flexuous, usually purplish, 2-10 mm. long, variable in the same panicle.
Type locality: Orizaba, Mexico.
Distribution: Shady banks and moist thickets, often persisting in pastures, mostly 1000-2000 meters, Veracruz to Panama.