Chloris virgata |
Chloris cucullata |
|
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feather finger grass, feather windmill-grass, showy chloris |
hooded windmill-grass |
|
Habit | Plants annual; usually tufted, occasionally stoloniferous. | Plants perennial; cespitose. |
Culms | 10-100+ cm. |
15-60 cm, erect. |
Sheaths | usually glabrous; ligules to 4 mm, erose or ciliate; blades to 30 cm long, to 15 mm wide, basal hairs to 4 mm, otherwise usually glabrous, occasionally pilose. |
glabrous; ligules 0.7-1 mm; blades to 20 cm long, 2-4 mm wide, without basal hairs, glabrous or scabrous, upper cauline leaves often greatly reduced. |
Panicles | digitate, with 4-20, evidently distinct branches; branches 5-10 cm, erect to ascending, averaging 10 spikelets per cm. |
with 10-20 branches in several closely-spaced whorls; branches 2-5 cm, spreading, with 14-18 spikelets per cm; disarticulation beneath the glumes. |
Spikelets | strongly imbricate, with 1 bisexual and 1(2) sterile floret(s). |
with 1 bisexual and 1 sterile floret. |
Lower glumes | 1.5-2.5 mm; upper glumes 2.5-4.3 mm; lowest lemmas 2.5-4.2 mm, keels usually prominently gibbous, glabrous, or conspicuously pilose, sides not grooved, margins glabrous, scabrous or pilose basally, with conspicuously longer hairs distally, hairs longer than 1.5 mm, lemma apices not conspicuously bilobed, awned, awns 2.5-15 mm; second florets 1.4-2.9 mm long, 0.4-0.8 mm wide, somewhat widened distally, not inflated, bilobed, lobes less than 1/5 as long as the lemmas, awned from the sinuses, awns 3-9.5 mm; third florets greatly reduced, unawned and shorter than the subtending rachilla segment or absent but the rachilla segment present. |
0.5-0.7 mm; upper glumes 1-1.5 mm; lowest lemmas 1.5-2 mm long, 0.7-1 mm wide, broadly elliptic, mostly glabrous but the keels and marginal veins appressed-pilose, obtuse, awned, awns 0.3-1.5 mm; second florets 1-1.5 mm long and about equally wide, conspicuously inflated, spherical, with the distal portion of the margins inrolled, not or inconspicuously bilobed, lobes less than 1/5 as long as the lemmas, midveins sometimes excurrent to 1.5 mm. |
Caryopses | 1.5-2 mm long, about 0.5 mm wide, elliptic. |
0.9-1.2 mm long, about 0.5 mm wide, obovoid. |
2n | = 20, 26, 30, 40. |
= 40. |
Chloris virgata |
Chloris cucullata |
|
Distribution |
AL; AR; AZ; CA; CO; FL; GA; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MO; MS; NC; ND; NE; NM; NV; NY; OH; OK; PA; SC; TN; TX; UT; HI
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AR; AZ; FL; KS; ME; NM; OK; SC; TX
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Discussion | Chloris virgata is a widespread species that grows in many habitats, from tropical to temperate areas with hot summers, including much of the United States. It is a common weed in alfalfa fields of the southwestern United States. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Chloris cucullata is common along roadsides and in waste areas throughout much of Texas and adjacent portions of New Mexico and Mexico. Records from outside this area probably represent introductions. Chloris cucullata hybridizes with both C. andropogonoides and C. verticillata (see discussion under C. andropogonoides). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 210. | FNA vol. 25, p. 214. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Chloris | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Chloris |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | Sw. | Bisch. |
Web links |