Plants annual; with dense fibrous root growth, not stoloniferous. Culms 30-60 cm, erect or decumbent, occasionally rooting at the lower nodes. Sheaths usually glabrous, occasionally pilose; ligules membranous, shortly ciliate; blades 10-30 cm long, to 10 mm wide, sometimes with long basal hairs, usually pilose elsewhere, occasionally glabrous or scabrous. Panicles with 5-15, evidently distinct branches in 1-2(3) whorls; branches 4.5-8 cm, spikelet-bearing to the base, with 11-15 spikelets per cm distally. Spikelets with 1 bisexual and 1 sterile floret. Lower glumes 0.7-1.6 mm; upper glumes 2-2.7 mm; lowest lemmas 2.8-3.3 mm long, 0.4-0.6 mm wide, lanceolate to elliptic, sides not conspicuously grooved, mostly glabrous, margins shortly ciliate distally, hairs less than 1 mm, apices awned, awns 6-13 mm; second florets 0.4-0.7 long, about 0.1 mm wide, borne on an equally long or longer rachilla segment, not or inconspicuously bilobed, awned, awns 3-5 mm. Caryopses 1.4-1.5 mm long, 0.3-0.4 mm wide, ellipsoidal. 2n = 40.

Chloris radiata is a weedy species of the eastern Caribbean, Central America, and northern South America. It may be native to Florida, but the record from Linton, Oregon, was from a ballast dump. The species is no longer found in Oregon.

Common Name: radiate fingergrass

Duration: Annual

Nativity: Non-Native

Lifeform: Graminoid

General: Perennial grasses, blades 45-120 cm tall, plants stoloniferous with fibrous roots. Occasionally flowering in the first year.

Vegetative: Blades

Inflorescence: Inflorescences of several digitate spikes, spikelets with 1-2 perfect florets, the rachilla prolonged beyond the floret, bearing a club-shaped rudiment composed of 1 or more reduced, sterile lemmas, fertile lemmas 3-nerved, awned from the back just below the apex. Lemmas, paleas, awns, etc.

Ecology: Found from 0,000-0,000 ft (0000-0000 m); flowering

Notes: The currently accepted name is Chloris pycnothrix as of September 2012.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Synonyms: Agrostis radiata

Editor: LCrumbacher2012