Single Record

Species: Muhlenbergia paniculata [Schedonnardus paniculatus] [Lepturus paniculatus] [Rottboellia paniculata] [Spirochloe paniculata

Comments: Tumblegrass has been vouchered from only three locations in the Watershed: Little La Garita Creek, eight miles west of La Garita (Saguache Co, 1939), near Crestone (Saguache Co, 1999), and beside Hwy 159, 0.5 air miles north of the New Mexico line (Costilla Co, 1999). The recent photorecord (2025) from conifer understory on the south bank of Middle San Francisco Creek (Rio Grande Co) was by a horseback and hiker trail, and the plant seeds could have been carried down from the open gravelly meadow just 15 feet above it. So the typical habitat is dry and gravelly, from basin to montane, sometimes ruderal. At maturity, the panicle breaks off and becomes a tumbleweed, spreading its graIn. The USA distribution is considerable, covering the Great Plains down through all of Texas, and the Rockies from Canadian to Mexican borders. Muhlenbergia paniculata, perennial and warm-season, follows the Rio Grande drainage, spottily, almost to the Gulf of Mexico. Note that traditionally, this taxon occupied the only species in the genus Schedonnardus, but recently has been placed in Muhlenbergia (see Peterson et. al, 2010).