Plants annual. Culms 15-95 cm, erect or decumbent and rooting at
the lower nodes. Sheaths glabrous; ligules 0.3-0.5 mm, erose to
lacerate; blades to 15 cm long, 0.3-0.6 mm wide, with basal hairs, otherwise
usually glabrous. Panicles digitate, with 7-15 evidently distinct branches;
branches 3-8 cm, more or less erect, averaging 14 spikelets per cm. Spikelets
with 1 bisexual and 2(3) sterile florets. Lower glumes 1.2-2.1 mm; upper
glumes 2.3-2.7 mm; lowest lemmas 2-2.7 mm, ovate to elliptic, calluses
and distal portion of the margins pilose, hairs to 1 mm, keels glabrous or pilose,
apices awned, awns 4-7.7 mm; second florets 0.9-1.3 mm long, 0.4-0.9 mm
wide, slightly to strongly widened distally, inflated, usually glabrous, truncate,
awned, awns 5-7 mm; third florets obovoid to subspherical, smaller than
the first, strongly inflated. Caryopses 1.1-1.4 mm. 2n = 20, 40,
ca. 50.
Chloris barbata grows in subtropical and tropical coastal regions on loams,
limestone-derived soils, and along beaches. The main portion of its range lies
to the south of the Flora region, through the Caribbean and the east coast
of Mexico, Central America, and South America. It is a weedy species, often growing
in waste areas, but also in cultivated fields.