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.

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Rhizomes present, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems geniculate, decumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at nodes, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stems compressed, flattened, or sulcate, Stem internodes solid or spongy, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exce eding 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 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Leaf blades scabrous, roughened, or wrinkled, Ligule present, Ligule a fringed, ciliate, or lobed 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 branches more than 10 to numerous, Inflorescence branches 1-sided, Lower panicle branches whorled, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets sessile or subsessile, Spikelets laterally compressed, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 1 fertile floret, Spikelet with one perfec t floret and one staminate floret, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, 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 glabrous, Lemma body or surface hairy, Lemma apex truncate, rounded, or obtuse, 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.