Chloris virgata |
Chloris ventricosa |
|
---|---|---|
feather finger grass, feather windmill-grass, showy chloris |
Australian windmill grass, plump windmill-grass |
|
Habit | Plants annual; usually tufted, occasionally stoloniferous. | Plants perennial; stoloniferous. |
Culms | 10-100+ cm. |
to 100 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, scabrous, or partly pilose; ligules erose to ciliate; blades with basal hairs to 3 mm, otherwise glabrous, scabrous, or sparsely pilose. |
Panicles | digitate, with 4-20, evidently distinct branches; branches 5-10 cm, erect to ascending, averaging 10 spikelets per cm. |
digitate, with 2-9 evidently distinct branches; branches 5-11 cm, spikelet-bearing almost to the base, averaging 10 spikelets per cm. |
Spikelets | strongly imbricate, with 1 bisexual and 1(2) sterile floret(s). |
with 1 bisexual and 1(2) staminate floret(s). |
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. |
1.2-2.3 mm; upper glumes 2.5-4.1 mm; lowest lemmas 2-5.4 mm long, 0.6-1.2 mm wide, elliptic to obovate, sometimes ventricose, usually glabrous, midveins scabrous, sides not conspicuously grooved, margins inrolled, usually glabrous or scabrous, occasionally with a few scattered hairs, especially distally, apices entire or minutely bilobed, awned, awns 1-11 mm; second florets 1-2.6 mm long, 0.3-1 mm wide, cylindrical to narrowly turbinate, apices obtuse to truncate, entire, awned, awns 0.5-7.5 mm; anthers 0.7-1.4 mm. |
Caryopses | 1.5-2 mm long, about 0.5 mm wide, elliptic. |
1.5-2.1 mm long, about 0.4 mm wide, narrowly obovoid to trigonous. |
2n | = 20, 26, 30, 40. |
= unknown. |
Chloris virgata |
Chloris ventricosa |
|
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
|
SC; VA |
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 ventricosa, an Australian species, has been found near old woolen mills in South Carolina and has been cultivated It is very similar to C. truncata, but usually has shorter panicle branches. Other differences include its usually tawny bisexual lemmas and their usually glabrous margins. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 210. | FNA vol. 25, p. 212. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Chloris | Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Chloris |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | Sw. | R. Br. |
Web links |