Flora of the Hawaiian Islands
Monocotyledon Literature for Chloris barbata
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999; Lorence & Wagner, 2019.
   Poaceae -- The Grass Family Bibliography
      Chloris barbata

Common name(s): fingergrass, mau`u lei, swollen fingergrass
General Information
DistributionNative to Central America, the West Indies, and South America, now widely naturalized.In the Hawaiian Islands, naturalized on Kure, Midway, Ni`ihau, Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Kaho`olawe, Hawai`i.
















Habit
Annual; culms erect or sometimes decumbent at base and rooting at proximal nodes, 30-70 cm tall, glabrous.
Leaves
Leaves with sheath 2‒6 cm long, glabrous, compressed, shorter than internodes, usually pilose at throat; ligule ca. 0.5 mm long, membranous, minutely erose; blade flat, 2‒12 cm long, 1‒5 mm wide, distal blades decreasing in size to nearly obsolete, adaxial surface usually sparsely long pilose, margin scabrous.
Flowers
Inflorescences of 5‒15(‒22) digitate, ascending to spreading, purple, feathery spikes 4‒6(‒8) cm long. Spikelets closely imbricate, 3-flowered, each with an awn; glumes narrow, acute, first glume 1‒1.5 mm long, second glume 2‒2.5 mm long; first lemma 2‒2.5 mm long, obovate, keel sparsely pilose, marginal veins silky pubescent in distal ½, apex rounded, awn slender, 0.5‒1 cm long, callus appressed pilose; palea 2‒2.5 mm long and nearly as broad as lemma, keels marginal; apical rudiment ca. 1 mm long, consisting of 2 triangular truncate, thin, sterile lemmas, 1 within the other, situated at nearly the height of the fertile lemma, awns ca. 5 mm long.
Fruit
Caryopsis brown, fusiform, ca. 1.1 mm long, enclosed within the persistent lemma and palea.
Chromosomes
2n = 20, 40, ca. 50, 56.
Contributor
Nancy Khan