Chloris gayana Kunth
Family: Poaceae, Tribe: Cynodonteae
Pertinent Synonyms & Notes (particularly those used in California; go to GRIN for other synonyms)
Chloris abyssinica Hochst. ex A. Rich.
Pertinent Common Names (particularly those used in California; go to GRIN for other common names)
Rhodesgrass
Primary Disseminule Type
fertile floret plus 1–4 apically-attached sterile florets or caryopsis alone
Description (diagnostics are in brown)
Spikelets sessile, solitary, strongly imbricate, tawny, cuneate, laterally compressed, 2.5–4 mm long, consisting of 1 fertile floret, with (1)2–3(4) diminished sterile (empty) florets attached above. Disarticulation below the fertile floret.
Glumes persistent, similar, lanceolate, thinner than fertile lemma, membranous, gaping, keeled, 1-veined. Lower glume 1.4–2.8 mm long (0.6–0.7 length of upper glume), apex acute. Upper glume 2.2–4 mm long (same length as adjacent fertile lemma), apex setaceously attenuate.
First sterile floret 1.5–3.2 mm long x 0.3–1 mm wide, pilose, adorned on margins, apex inconspicuously bilobed, truncate, subapically-awned, awns 0.8–3.2 mm long. Secondary sterile florets progressively smaller, longer than the subtending rachilla segment, awnless or awn-tipped.
Fertile floret obtuse, callus bearded.
Fertile lemma ovate to obovate or elliptic, laterally compressed (lanceolate in profile), somewhat gibbous, 2.5–4.2 mm long x 0.7–1 mm wide, pallid, cartilaginous, pubescence variable (though margins usually with short appressed hairs, these sometimes much longer near apex), keeled, 3-veined, apex inconspicuously bilobed, subapically-awned, awn 1.5–10 mm long.
Caryopsis elliptic in outline, trigonous in cross-section, 1–2 mm long x ca. 0.5 mm wide, brown, separating readily from the spikelet in some varieties, embryo ca. 0.5 length of caryopsis, hilum round.
Similar Species
Risk Assessment (codes in yellow or red indicate cause for concern; assessments are current as of mid-2011; click AUQP, NZBORIC, or NZBPI for access to the most recent versions of these databases and possible assessment changes)
AUQP, NZBORIC, NZBPI