Muhlenbergia ciliata (Kunth) Kunth

Sprawling, slender annuals. Culms 8–30 (−50) cm tall, glabrous, filiform, often tufted, freely branching at lower nodes; 0.2–0.5 mm diameter just below the inflorescence; internodes 6–42 mm long. Leaf sheaths (8−) 20–44 mm long, glabrous or sparsely pilose along the margins, shorter than the internodes; ligules 0.2–0.8 mm long, a ciliate membrane; apex truncate; margin with a tuft of hairs up to 1 mm long; blades 1–4 cm long, 0.6–1.4 mm wide, flat or loosely involute, often sparsely pilose above, glabrous below. Panicles 4–12 cm long, 1.8–5.0 cm wide, terminal, densely flowered; primary branches 1.5–3.7 cm long spreading and reflexed at maturity up to 90° from the rachises, one per node; pedicels 0.5–3 mm long, glabrous, appressed, erect; nodes 6–13 per panicle; Spikelets appressed to the branches, overlapping; glumes 0.7–1.7 mm long, subequal, glabrous, 1-nerved; apex acuminate, often mucronate; the mucro up to 0.5 mm long; lower glumes 0.7–1.5 mm long; upper glumes 0.8–1.7 mm long; lemmas 1.8–2.5 mm long, lanceolate, slender, awned, strongly 3-nerved but appearing five-nerved, the intermediate “nerves” actually rows of short barbs on top of folded epidermal ridges, sometimes with prominent short hairs (scabers) along the lateral nerves, often appearing glabrous without magnification, awns 5–11(−18) mm long, flexuous; callus minutely short pubescent; paleas 1.6–2.4 mm long, narrowly lanceolate, glabrous; anthers 0.3–0.5 mm long, yellowish. Caryopses 0.8–1.8 mm long, narrowly fusiform, brownish. 2n = 20.

Muhlenbergiaciliata is found throughout México and Central America in Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina.