Chloris gayana
Plants perennial; usually stoloniferous. Culms to 300 cm, erect. Sheaths glabrous or scabrous, often ciliate apically; ligules ciliate; blades to 30 cm long, 15 mm wide, scabrous. Panicles digitate, with 9-30 evidently distinct branches; branches 8-20 cm, usually somewhat divaricate, spikelet-bearing to the base, averaging 10 spikelets per cm. Spikelets strongly imbricate, tawny, with 1 bisexual and (1) 2-4 usually staminate, sometimes sterile florets. Lower glumes 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. Caryopses 1-1.5 mm long, about 0.5 mm wide. 2n = 20, 30, 40.
Distribution
Maine, Va., Mass., Tex., La., Virgin Islands, Calif., N.C., Pacific Islands (Hawaii), Ill., Miss., Ariz., Fla.
Discussion
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.
Selected References
None.
Lower Taxa
"decumbent" is not a number.