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swollen fingergrass, swollen windmill-grass

Mexican windmill-grass

Habit Plants annual. Plants perennial; usually cespitose, occasionally shortly stoloniferous.
Culms

15-95 cm, erect or decumbent and rooting at the lower nodes.

30-75 cm, erect.

Sheaths

glabrous;

ligules 0.3-0.5 mm, erose to lacerate;

blades to 15 cm long, 0.3-0.6 mm wide, with basal hairs, otherwise usually glabrous.

glabrous;

ligules about 0.5 mm, shortly ciliate;

blades to 20 cm long, to 5 mm wide, sometimes with long basal hairs, otherwise scabrous.

Panicles

digitate, with 7-15 evidently distinct branches;

branches 3-8 cm, more or less erect, averaging 14 spikelets per cm.

with 5-17, evidently distinct branches in 1-3 closely-spaced whorls;

branches to 7 cm, usually erect when young, spreading to reflexed at maturity, averaging 12 spikelets per cm.

Spikelets

with 1 bisexual and 2(3) sterile florets.

with 1 bisexual and 1 staminate floret.

Lower glumes

1.2-2.1 mm;

upper glumes 2.3-2.7 mm;

lowest lemmas 2-2.7 mm, ovate to elliptic, calluses and distal portion of the margins pilose, hairs to 1 mm, keels glabrous or pilose, apices awned, awns 4-7.7 mm;

second florets 0.9-1.3 mm long, 0.4-0.9 mm wide, slightly to strongly widened distally, inflated, usually glabrous, truncate, awned, awns 5-7 mm;

third florets obovoid to subspherical, smaller than the first, strongly inflated.

1.5-3.2 mm;

upper glumes 2.5-3.4 mm;

lowest lemmas 2.8-3.7 mm long, 0.6-1.1 mm wide, broadly linear to elliptic, mostly glabrous but the margins appressed pubescent, apices obtuse, not conspicuously bilobed, sometimes shortly mucronate;

second florets 1.4-2.2 mm long, 0.3-0.9 mm wide, usually at least twice as long as wide, not lobed, unawned, occasionally mucronate.

Caryopses

1.1-1.4 mm.

1.7-2.3 mm long, 0.5-0.6 mm wide, ellipsoid.

2n

= 20, 40, ca. 50.

= ca. 65, 80.

Chloris barbata

Chloris submutica

Distribution
from FNA
FL; LA; SC; TX; HI; PR; Virgin Islands
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
NM; TX
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Chloris barbata grows in subtropical and tropical coastal regions on loams, limestone-derived soils, and along beaches. The main portion of its range lies to the south of the Flora region, through the Caribbean and the east coast of Mexico, Central America, and South America. It is a weedy species, often growing in waste areas, but also in cultivated fields.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Chloris submutica grows from the southwestern United States through Mexico, Guatemala, and Colombia to Venezuela. In Mexico, it is generally found between 1000-2100 m.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 25, p. 208. FNA vol. 25, p. 216.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Chloris Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Chloris
Sibling taxa
C. andropogonoides, C. berroi, C. canterae, C. ciliata, C. cucullata, C. divaricata, C. elata, C. gayana, C. pectinata, C. pilosa, C. radiata, C. submutica, C. texensis, C. truncata, C. ventricosa, C. verticillata, C. virgata
C. andropogonoides, C. barbata, C. berroi, C. canterae, C. ciliata, C. cucullata, C. divaricata, C. elata, C. gayana, C. pectinata, C. pilosa, C. radiata, C. texensis, C. truncata, C. ventricosa, C. verticillata, C. virgata
Synonyms C. inflata
Name authority Sw. Kunth
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