Chloris gayana
Chloris divaricata
Rhodes grass, Rhodes windmill-grass
spreading windmill-grass
to 300 cm, erect.
20-50 cm.
glabrous or scabrous, often ciliate apically;
ligules ciliate;
blades to 30 cm long, 15 mm wide, scabrous.
glabrous;
ligules membranous, ciliolate;
blades to 15 cm long, 1-1.5 mm wide, glabrous or scabrous.
digitate, with 9-30 evidently distinct branches;
branches 8-20 cm, usually somewhat divaricate, spikelet-bearing to the base, averaging 10 spikelets per cm.
digitate, with 3-9 branches;
branches 4-17 cm, evidently distinct, becoming horizontal, spikelet-bearing to the base or within 0.5 cm of the base, distal portion with 3-7 spikelets per cm.
strongly imbricate, tawny, with 1 bisexual and (1)2-4 usually staminate, sometimes sterile florets.
appressed, with 1 bisexual and 1 sterile floret.
1.4-2.8 mm;
upper glumes 2.2-3.5 mm;
lowest lemmas 2.5-4.2 mm long, 0.7-1 mm wide, ovate to obovate or elliptic, somewhat gibbous, sides not grooved, pubescence variable, sides usually glabrous, sometimes scabrous or appressed pubescent, margins usually glabrous or appressed pubescent on the lower portions, sometimes throughout their length, sometimes with strongly divergent hairs distally, occasionally with strongly divergent hairs their entire length, divergent hairs, when present, 1+ mm, lemma apices inconspicuously bilobed, awned, awns 1.5-6.5 mm;
second florets staminate or sterile, 2.2-3.2 mm long, 0.3-1 mm wide, similar to the first floret but more cylindrical, not widened distally, inflated, if at all, only near the apices, inconspicuously bilobed, awned, awns 0.8-3.2 mm;
distal florets progressively smaller, longer than the subtending rachilla segment, awn-tipped or unawned.
0.9-1.8 mm;
upper glumes 2-2.9 mm;
lowest lemmas 2.9-4 mm, linear to narrowly lanceolate, mostly glabrous or scabrous, margins glabrous or with a few short, appressed hairs near the apices, 1-3-awned, central awns 7.5-17 mm, lateral lobes unawned or with awns less than 0.4 mm;
second florets 1.2-1.9 mm, narrowly elliptic, bilobed for 1/3–1/2 of their length, apices acute, awned from between the lobes, awns 4.5-9.5 mm.
1-1.5 mm long, about 0.5 mm wide.
about 2.2 mm long, about 0.4 mm wide, narrowly ellipsoid.
= 20, 30, 40.
= unknown.
Chloris gayana
Chloris divaricata
Chloris gayana grows in warm-temperate to tropical regions throughout the world, including the southern United States. It is cultivated as a meadow grass in irrigated regions of the southwest.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Chloris divaricata is an Australian species that was collected around woolen mills of South Carolina in the first half of the twentieth century. It has since become established in Texas and New Mexico.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
CA
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