• GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS
• RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM
• REGENERATION PROCESSES
• SITE CHARACTERISTICS
• SUCCESSIONAL STATUS
• SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT

GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS:

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].

RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM:

Hemicryptophyte

REGENERATION PROCESSES:

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.

SITE CHARACTERISTICS:

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 60^o 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

SUCCESSIONAL STATUS:

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].

SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT:

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].

Related categories for SPECIES: Muhlenbergia richardsonis | Mat Muhly