Plants perennial; cespitose. Culms to 100 cm, erect. Sheaths
glabrous; ligules about 0.5 mm, membranous, erose; blades to 25
cm long, 1-6 mm wide, flat or involute, sometimes appearing filiform, bases
with hairs to 7 mm. Panicles digitate, with 2-9 evidently separate branches;
branches 3-14 cm, erect to curving, averaging 11 spikelets per cm. Spikelets
strongly imbricate, light to medium brown, with 2(3) sterile florets. Lower
glumes 1.6-2.4 mm; upper glumes 2.3-3.8 mm; lowest lemmas
2.7-4.2 mm long, 0.6-1.1 mm wide, marginal veins and keels densely and conspicuously
hairy, hairs 1.5-3 mm, awns 2.4-5.5 mm; second florets 1.1-1.8 mm, about
1/2 as wide as long, conspicuously widened distally, laterally compressed, glabrous,
truncate, awned, awns 1.5-3.5 mm; distal sterile floret(s) similar but
smaller, longer than the subtending rachilla internodes, unawned. Caryopses
1.3-2 mm long, 0.8-0.9 mm wide, ovoid-ellipsoid.
Chloris canterae is native to South America. Both of its varieties are
found in the coastal plain of Texas and Louisiana. In South America, they are
essentially sympatric, but occupy different habitats.
