Muhlenbergia schreberi

9.9

A thin grass with many stems that grows in the central United States and feeds grazing animals

noun

Specialized

: Muhlenbergia schreberi

Farmers sometimes use Muhlenbergia schreberi as a supplementary grazing grass for livestock.

Examples

Botanists identified a healthy patch of Muhlenbergia schreberi thriving near the creek bank.
Muhlenbergia schreberi grows widely in open woods and along roadsides throughout the central United States.
The Muhlenbergia schreberi grows well in sandy soils.
Farmers often cultivate Muhlenbergia schreberi for grazing.
Muhlenbergia schreberi provides a valuable food source for livestock, especially in the central United States.
Many ranchers prefer to let their cattle graze on Muhlenbergia schreberi during the summer months.
Muhlenbergia schreberi is commonly found in fields and pastures where livestock graze.

Synonyms

nimblewill

vsMuhlenbergia schreberi

Specialized

1 9.9

A thin grass from the central United States with fine stems that cattle sometimes eat

is the scientific Latin name used in formal naming

Surface Forms

Muhlenbergia schreberi singular

Muhlenbergia schreberis plural

Morphology

Muhlenbergia + schreberi

This is a Linnaean binomial: if a learner knows 'Muhlenbergia' as a genus of grass and understands that a following epithet names a particular species, they can infer the phrase denotes a specific grass of that genus. However, the species epithet 'schreberi' is an arbitrary/eponymic label with no descriptive lexical meaning, so the fine-grained properties (slender, branching, grazing value) are not inferable from the parts.

Etymology

Muhlenbergia schreberi may come from two people: the genus Muhlenbergia was named for a U.S. plant scientist called Muhlenberg, and the species part schreberi honours a German naturalist named Schreber. So this 'scientific name' links the grass to those two plant experts and is why we use that long name today.