2. Chloris virgata Sw. (feather finger grass, showy chloris)

Pl. 142 k; Map 577

Plants annual. Flowering stems 10–50(–90) cm long, erect to spreading, somewhat flattened. Leaves mostly along the flowering stems. Leaf sheaths rounded to somewhat keeled on the back. Leaf blades 1–25 cm long, 3–8 mm wide. Inflorescences with 6–20 spikes, these 3–9 cm long, ascending, arranged palmately (in a single whorl) at the tip of the axis, with the numerous spikelets strongly overlapping. Lower glume 1.5–3.0 mm long. Upper glume 2.5–4.5 mm long. Fertile lemma with the body 2.5–3.5 mm long, broadly obovate, abruptly narrowed to an awn 4–9 mm long, with a conspicuous tuft of long hairs at the tip and sometimes also toward the base of the midnerve. Sterile lemmas with the body 1.5–2.7 mm long, the awn 3–7 mm long. 2n=20, 26, 40. July–October.

Introduced, uncommon, mostly in counties along the Missouri River (southwestern U.S. south to South America and the Caribbean Islands; introduced commonly farther north and east and in the Old World). Roadsides, railroads, fallow fields, and open, disturbed areas.

This species is a weed in tropical and warm‑temperate regions nearly worldwide. In the United States, the limits of its natural distribution are poorly understood but possibly are somewhere in the southern Great Plains. It occurs as far north as Maine.