Common name: Rhodes Grass
Chloris gayana Kunth APNI* 
Description: Erect, mostly glabrous perennial to 1.2 m high, usually stoloniferous, sometimes tufted; culms usually branched, slightly geniculate at the base, tough and wiry.
Leaves with sheath glabrous to scabrous, often ciliate apically; ligule ciliate; blade 5–10 mm wide.
Spikes 6–18, subdigitate, 5–10 cm long, spreading to erect. Spikelets rather densely imbricate, 3- or 4-flowered, 3–5 mm long, usually lowest bisexual, second male or bisexual, and rest sterile. Glumes lanceolate to narrow-ovate, lower 1.4–2.8 mm long, upper 2.2–3.5 mm long. Fertile lemma 2.5–4.2 mm long, ovate to obovate to elliptic, awn 1.5–6.5 mm long; second similar, awn 0.8–3.2 mm long; upper florets awnless or awn-tipped.
Flowering: summer.
Distribution and occurrence: Widely cultivated as a pasture species and planted on road margins as a soil stabilizer. Native of Afr.
NSW subdivisions: *NC, *CC, *SC, *NT, *CT, *ST, *NWS, *CWS, *SWS, *NWP, *SWP, *LHI
Other Australian states: *Qld *Vic. *W.A. *S.A. *N.T.
Text by S. W. L. Jacobs & S. M. Hastings
Taxon concept: Flora of NSW 4 (1993)
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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