Index / Search / Muhlenbergia pungens
§1 Plant
Muhlenbergia pungens Thurb.
vernacular sandhill muhly — species · Poaceae
§2Habit & range
Habit and range
- Growth habit
- Graminoid
- Duration
- Perennial
- Group
- Monocot
- Family
- Poaceae Barnhart
- Genus
- Muhlenbergia
§2a
Native status, by region
- L48 Lower 48 States Native
§2b
County-level range
· 77 counties across 8 states/territories§3Cultivation specs · USDA
Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.
§3a
Tolerances
- Drought
- High
- Shade
- High
- Moisture use
- Low
- Fire
- High
- Salinity
- None
- Anaerobic
- None
- CaCO₃
- Medium
- Hedging
- None
§3b
Climate & soil
- Cold tolerance
- -23 °F minimum
- Frost-free days
- 120 min.
- Precipitation
- 8–20 in/yr
- pH range
- 5–7
- Root depth
- 12 in min.
- Fertility need
- Low
- Soil texture
- coarse, medium
§3c
Form & growth
- Growth form
- Rhizomatous
- Growth rate
- Moderate
- Lifespan
- Long
- Mature height
- 1.5 ft
- Foliage texture
- Fine
- Foliage colour
- Green
- Porosity (summer)
- Moderate
- Porosity (winter)
- Porous
- Flower colour
- Yellow
- Fruit colour
- Brown
- Fire resistant
- No
- N fixation
- None
- Toxicity
- None
§3d
Reproduction
- Bloom period
- Late Summer
- Seed abundance
- Low
- Seed begins
- Summer
- Seed ends
- Fall
- Spread rate
- Slow
- Stratify
- No
- Seeds / lb
- 747,000
- Propagation
- seed, sprigs
§3e
Use & availability
- Commercial availability
- Field Collections Only
- Nursery stock
- No
- Browse palatability
- Low
- Graze palatability
- Low
- Palatable, human
- No
- Protein potential
- Low
- Lumber
- No
- Christmas tree
- No
§4Counties, by state
Recorded in 77 counties across 8 states/territories.
Arizona view state ↗ 5 N ▾
Colorado view state ↗ 14 N ▾
Nebraska view state ↗ 27 N ▾
- Banner 31007
- Brown 31017
- Buffalo 31019
- Chase 31029
- Cherry 31031
- Cheyenne 31033
- Custer 31041
- Dawes 31045
- Garden 31069
- Garfield 31071
- Grant 31075
- Greeley 31077
- Hall 31079
- Holt 31089
- Hooker 31091
- Kearney 31099
- Kimball 31105
- Lincoln 31111
- Loup 31115
- Morrill 31123
- Perkins 31135
- Platte 31141
- Sheridan 31161
- Sioux 31165
- Stanton 31167
- Thomas 31171
- Wheeler 31183
New Mexico view state ↗ 14 N ▾
South Dakota view state ↗ 1 N ▾
Utah view state ↗ 7 N ▾
§5Sources & provenance
USDA PLANTS
Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.
plants.usda.gov/MUPU2 ↗GBIF Backbone
Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.
gbif.org/species/2703979 ↗Record version
Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:
usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26
fetched 2026-05-26T13:12:28Z