Kunth's Smallgrass

Microchloa kunthii Desv. Opusc. 75. 1831
Paspalum lenuissimum M. E. Jones, Contr. W. Hot. 18: 24. 1935. (Baja California, Jones 27584.)
Perennial; culms very slender, erect in small dense tufts, 10-30 cm. tall; sheaths, except the lowermost, much shorter than the internodes, scabernlous ; Ugnle ciliate, 1-1.5 ram. long; blades firm, flat or usually folded, with thick white scabrous margins, those of the culm 1-2.5 cm. long, those of the innovations as much as 6 cm. long, 1-1.5 mm. wide; spike 6-15 cm. long, arcuate, the rachis ciliate; spikelets 2.5-3.5 ram. long; lemma 2-2.5 mm. long, pilose on the midnerve, the margins densely ciliate with hairs about 1 mm. long.
Type locality: Omitlan, Mexico (Humboldt &■ Bonpland.) Distribution: Sterile ground and rocky hills, Mexico to Argentina.

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem internodes hollow, 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 and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades very narrow or filiform, less than 2 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blade margins folded, involute, or conduplicate, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Leaf blades scabrous, roughened, or wrinkled, Ligule present, Ligule a fringed, ciliate, or lobed membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence simple spikes, Inflorescence a dense slender spike-like panicle or raceme, branches contracted, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence spike linear or cylindric, several times longer than wide, Inflorescence single raceme, fascicle or spike, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets sessile or subsessile, Spikelets dor sally compressed or terete, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 1 fertile floret, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating below the glumes, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes equal or subequal, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glume equal to or longer than spikelet, Glumes 1 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma 3 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma apex truncate, rounded, or obtuse, Lemma awnless, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea about equal to 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.