Melica imperfecta Trin.   Poaceae (Grass Family)   Native   Small Flowered Melic Grass

                                March Photo

Plant Characteristics:  Perennial, the culms erect, 3-11 dm. tall, frequently bulbous at base; blades 1-6 mm. wide; panicle 5-36 cm. long, narrow or spreading, the branches often fascicled, ligule 3-6 mm.; spikelets 4-7 mm. long, usually 1-, occasionally 2-fld.; fertile florets 1 or rarely 2; articulation above or below the glumes; glumes obtuse to acutish, 2-6 mm. long, +/- equal; lemmas not pubescent above, acute to obtuse, 3-7 mm. long, with hyaline apices, upper margins usually 7-nerved; palea usually 3/4 the lemma.

Habitat:  Common on dry open often rocky slopes below 6500 ft.; Coastal Sage Scrub, Chaparral, S. Oak Wd., Yellow Pine F., etc.; L. Calif. through cismontane Calif. to cent. Calif.; occasional, Creosote Bush Scrub to Pinyon-Juniper Wd.; Mojave Desert, Santa Catalina and San Clemente Ids.  April-May.

Name:  Melica, an Italian name for a kind of sorghum, probably from the sweet juice. (mel, honey). (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 980).  Latin, perfectus, complete.  (Jaeger 188).  The prefix im or in meaning in, into, within, upon, not.  Thus, imperfecta means imperfect or incomplete, the flower sometimes lacking stamens or pistils.  (John Johnson).  

General:  Occasional throughout the study area.  Always found in areas where it could not be grazed, i.e. on banks or at the bottom of banks where the Irvine sheep and cattle were never allowed or could not roam.   Photographed on the lower path between 23rd Street and the Delhi area and along Back Bay Dr. approximately below the Eastbluff burn area.  (my comments).      Melica species have been known to cause hay fever and asthma.  (Fuller 382).      The Kawaiisu Indians of the southern Sierra Nevada region gathered the grass, winnowed the seeds, pounded and boiled them into mush.  (Campbell 165).      About 60 species of cooler parts of the world.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 980.       The 1993 Jepson Manual combines Melica imperfecta and M. imperfecta var. flexuosa.  Because I identified both varieties prior to the publishing of the Jepson Manual, I have kept both data sheets along with their photographs.  (my comment).

Text Ref:  Hickman, Ed. 1271; Munz, Flora So. Calif. 981; Roberts 47.

Photo Ref:  Mar 2 86 # 8,9; Mar-April 87 # 11,12,13.

Identity: by Fred Roberts.

First Found:  March 1986.

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 327.

Have plant specimen.

Last edit 11/26/04.  

                                                 March Photo                                                                   March Photo