Slimspike Windmill Grass

Chloris andropogonoides Fonrn. Mex. PI. Gram. 2: 143. 1886
Chloris tenuispica Nash, Bull. Torrey Club 25; 436. 1898. (Type from Texas. Nealley in 1889.)
Stoloniferous perennial; culms slender, erect, 10-25 cm. tall, much exceeding the short leaves; sheaths crowded, compressed-keeled, glabrous or nearly so, the margins hyaline; ligiJe 0.5 mm. long, minutely ciliate; blades flat from a conduplicate base, 2-6 cm. long, 1.5-2 mm. wide, scaberulous, sometimes sparsely papillose-hispid, the margins scabrous; spikes 6-10, 3-8 cm. long, ascending or spreading, digitate or with a second whorl below; spikelets 2-3 mm. long, appressed; glumes acuminate, I -nerved, scabrous on the keel, the first slightly shorter, the second slightly longer than the fertile floret; fertile floret 2-2.3 mm. long, acute, the lemma appressed-pilose on the keel and margins, the awn 4-6 mm. long, scabrous; rudiment narrow, 1.5 mm. long, the awn about 2 mm. long.
Type locality: San Luis de Potosl, Mexico (Virltl 1462). DisTRrBUTioN: Open ground, Texas and northeastern Mexico.

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stolons or runners present, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem internodes solid or spongy, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath or blade keeled, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades very narrow or filiform, less than 2 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Leaf blades scabrous, roughened, or wrinkled, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence a panicle with narrowly racemose or spicate branches, Inflorescence a panicle with digitately arranged spicate branches, Inflorescence with 2-10 branches, Inflorescence branches more than 10 to numerous, Inflorescence branches 1-sided, Lower panicle branches whorled, Inflorescence branches paired or digitate at a single node, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets sessile or subsessile, Spikelets laterally compressed, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 1 fertile floret, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bi sexual, Spikelets disarticulating above the glumes, glumes persistent, Entire inflorescence falling intact, as a tumbleweed, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes distinctly unequal, Glumes shorter than adjacent lemma, Glumes keeled or winged, Glumes 1 nerved, Lemma similar in texture to glumes, Lemma 3 nerved, Lemma body or surface hairy, Lemma apex acute or acuminate, Lemma distinctly awned, more than 2-3 mm, Lemma with 1 awn, Lemma awn less than 1 cm long, Lemma awn subapical or dorsal, Lemma awns straight or curved to base, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea shorter than lemma, Palea 2 nerved or 2 keeled, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear.