Tumble Windmill Grass

Chloris verticillata Nutt. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. II 5: 150. 1837.
Perennial; culms usually erect, or sometimes decumbent at the base and rooting at the lower nodes, 15-45 cm. tall; sheaths compressed-keeled, glabrous, the margins hyaline; ligule 0.5 mm. long, minutely ciliate; blades flat, conduplicate at the base, glabrous or scabrous on both surfaces, the margins very scabrous; spikes 8-20 (usually 10-15), 5-14 cm. (usually 8-10 cm.) long, digitate or whorled, stiffly spreading, naked at the densely pubescent base; spikelets 2.5-3 mm. long, rather distant; fertile floret 2.5 mm. long, the lemma acute, minutely pilose on the keel and margins, the awn slender, about 5 mm. long; rudiment 1.5 mm. long, truncate, the awn 4—5 mm. long.
Typb locality: Arkansas {Nutlall).
Distribution; Plains, Missouri to Colorado, and southward to Louisiana and New Mexico.