| Monocotyledon | Literature for Chloris gayana
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999. |
| Poaceae -- The Grass Family | Bibliography |
| Chloris gayana | |
Common name(s): fingergrass, Rhodes grass |
| General Information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Distribution | Native to Africa, now naturalized throughout the Neotropics.In the Hawaiian Islands, naturalized on Ni`ihau, Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Hawai`i. | |
| Habit |
Glabrous perennials; culms erect or sometimes decumbent, usually with long, stout, flattened, leafy stolons, ocasionally rooting at lower nodes, 50-150(-200) cm tall. |
|
| Leaves |
Lower sheaths about as long as internodes, upper sheaths somewhat shorter, striate, compressed, keeled; ligule membranous, ca. 0.5 mm long, ciliate; blades flat, rarely involute, 10-50 cm long, 3-5(-9) mm wide, usually keeled, upper surface near base sparsely papillose-hispid, apex attenuate. |
|
| Flowers |
Inflorescences of (5-)7-20 digitate, ascending to spreading spikes 4-15 cm long, ascending when young, spreading or sometimes slightly reflexed when mature, rachis slender, scabrous, base tomentose; spikelets 3-4-flowered, pale yellowish brown, closely imbricate; glumes narrow, 1-nerved, the nerves scabrous, first glume ovate-elliptic, 1.5-2 mm long, apex obtuse or acute, second glume elliptic, 2.5-3.5 mm long, margins scarious, apex acute or bifid; first lemma broadly elliptic, irregularly rhomboid in profile, 3-3.5 mm long, ciliate and long-hispid toward apex, apex bifid, awn straight, 1-5 mm long, callus with a tuft of white hairs; palea 3-3.5 mm long, often exceeding lemma, submembranous, glabrous or sparsely scaberulous on upper part, apex bifid; rudiment of 2 sterile florets, lower one narrow, obtuse, 2-2.5 mm long, with a straight awn 1-2 mm long, upper one minute, truncate. |
|
| Fruit |
Caryopsis ovoid, laterally compressed, ca. 1.5 mm long. |
|
| Chromosomes |
2n = 20, 30, 40 |
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