Chloris virgata
Chloris divaricata
feather finger grass, feather windmill-grass, showy chloris
spreading windmill-grass
10-100+ cm.
20-50 cm.
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 membranous, ciliolate;
blades to 15 cm long, 1-1.5 mm wide, glabrous or scabrous.
digitate, with 4-20, evidently distinct branches;
branches 5-10 cm, erect to ascending, 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, with 1 bisexual and 1(2) sterile floret(s).
appressed, with 1 bisexual and 1 sterile floret.
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.
0.9-1.8 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.
1.5-2 mm long, about 0.5 mm wide, elliptic.
about 2.2 mm long, about 0.4 mm wide, narrowly ellipsoid.
= 20, 26, 30, 40.
= unknown.
Chloris virgata
Chloris divaricata
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 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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