Trichloris pluriflora

Plants perennial; stoloniferous or cespitose. Culms to 150 cm. Sheaths glabrous or sparsely hirsute; ligules to 3 mm; blades to 30 cm long, to 10 mm wide, scabrous or sparsely hirsute. Panicles with 7-20 branches in a few, evidently separate whorls; branches to 20 cm, ascending, with 7-9 spikelets per cm. Spikelets with 1-2 bisexual florets, a third floret with a rudimentary pistil and stamens sometimes present below the (1)2-3 sterile florets. Lower glumes 2-3 mm; upper glumes 3-5 mm; lowest lemmas 3-5 mm, mostly glabrous, margins short-ciliate near the middle, sparsely scabrous distally, apices 3-awned, central awns 8-12 mm, lateral awns 0.5-1.5 mm; lowest sterile florets 1.5-3 mm long, about 0.3 mm wide, mostly glabrous, margins sometimes short-ciliate near the middle, apices 3-awned, central awns to 8 mm, lateral awns 0.2-1 mm. Caryopses 1.8-2.2 mm, strongly dorsally compressed. 2n = 80.

Trichloris pluriflora is native from southern Texas to Guatemala and, as a disjunct, from Ecuador to Argentina.