Plants annual; with dense fibrous root growth, not stoloniferous. Culms
30-60 cm, erect or decumbent, occasionally rooting at the lower nodes. Sheaths
usually glabrous, occasionally pilose; ligules membranous, shortly ciliate;
blades 10-30 cm long, to 10 mm wide, sometimes with long basal hairs, usually
pilose elsewhere, occasionally glabrous or scabrous. Panicles with 5-15,
evidently distinct branches in 1-2(3) whorls; branches 4.5-8 cm, spikelet-bearing
to the base, with 11-15 spikelets per cm distally. Spikelets with 1 bisexual
and 1 sterile floret. Lower glumes 0.7-1.6 mm; upper glumes 2-2.7
mm; lowest lemmas 2.8-3.3 mm long, 0.4-0.6 mm wide, lanceolate to elliptic,
sides not conspicuously grooved, mostly glabrous, margins shortly ciliate distally,
hairs less than 1 mm, apices awned, awns 6-13 mm; second florets 0.4-0.7
long, about 0.1 mm wide, borne on an equally long or longer rachilla segment,
not or inconspicuously bilobed, awned, awns 3-5 mm. Caryopses 1.4-1.5 mm
long, 0.3-0.4 mm wide, ellipsoidal. 2n = 40.
Chloris radiata is a weedy species of the eastern Caribbean, Central America,
and northern South America. It may be native to Florida, but the record from Linton,
Oregon, was from a ballast dump. The species is no longer found in Oregon.
Barkworth et al. 2007, Kearney and Peebles 1969
Common Name: radiate fingergrass Duration: Annual Nativity: Non-Native Lifeform: Graminoid General: Perennial grasses, blades 45-120 cm tall, plants stoloniferous with fibrous roots. Occasionally flowering in the first year. Vegetative: Blades Inflorescence: Inflorescences of several digitate spikes, spikelets with 1-2 perfect florets, the rachilla prolonged beyond the floret, bearing a club-shaped rudiment composed of 1 or more reduced, sterile lemmas, fertile lemmas 3-nerved, awned from the back just below the apex. Lemmas, paleas, awns, etc. Ecology: Found from 0,000-0,000 ft (0000-0000 m); flowering Notes: The currently accepted name is Chloris pycnothrix as of September 2012. Ethnobotany: Unknown Synonyms: Agrostis radiata Editor: LCrumbacher2012