Muhlenbergia minutissima(Steud.) Swallen

annual muhly

WFO wfo-0000880835 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 6 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 6 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Muhlenbergia minutissima, photographed by Cecelia Alexander
fig. a Cecelia Alexander, CC0 1.0 / 2021-08-21 / obs. 152506161
Muhlenbergia minutissima, photographed by Cecelia Alexander
fig. b Cecelia Alexander, CC0 1.0 / obs. 24635629
Muhlenbergia minutissima, photographed by Cecelia Alexander
fig. c Cecelia Alexander, CC0 1.0 / obs. 24636326
Muhlenbergia minutissima, photographed by Cecelia Alexander
fig. d Cecelia Alexander, CC0 1.0 / obs. 24631976
Muhlenbergia minutissima, photographed by Cecelia Alexander
fig. e Cecelia Alexander, CC0 1.0 / obs. 24477141
Muhlenbergia minutissima, photographed by Cecelia Alexander
fig. f Cecelia Alexander, CC0 1.0 / obs. 24221150
Muhlenbergia minutissima, photographed by Cecelia Alexander
fig. g Cecelia Alexander, CC0 1.0 / obs. 24636322
Muhlenbergia minutissima, photographed by Cecelia Alexander
fig. h Cecelia Alexander, CC0 1.0 / obs. 24635634

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
1748256
Filed as
Muhlenbergia minutissima (Steud.) Swallen
Det. by
P. M. Peterson 1988-05-01
Collected
E. Palmer 1875
Origin
US
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 20 botanical countries

Regions where Muhlenbergia minutissima is native: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, Guatemala ArizonaCaliforniaColoradoIdahoMexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SouthwestMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew MexicoOregonSouth DakotaTexasUtahWashingtonWyomingGuatemala
Native distribution of Muhlenbergia minutissima, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Arizona ARI NORTHERN AMERICA
California CAL
Colorado COL
Idaho IDA
Mexico Central MXC
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southwest MXS
Montana MNT
Nebraska NEB
Nevada NEV
New Mexico NWM
Oregon ORE
South Dakota SDA
Texas TEX
Utah UTA
Washington WAS
Wyoming WYO
Guatemala GUA SOUTHERN AMERICA

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 7 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Agrostis minutissima Steud.
  • Milium microspermum Lag.
  • Muhlenbergia confusa (E.Fourn.) Swallen
  • Panicum microspermum (Lag.) E.Fourn.
  • Sporobolus confusus (E.Fourn.) Vasey
  • Sporobolus minutissimus Hitchc.
  • Vilfa confusa E.Fourn.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.