Chloris virgata

Feather Fingergrass

A patch of Feather Fingergrass

The reddish variant

The green variant

The awns are many and short, about a quarter inch.

The roots of Feather Fingergrass.

Micro view of a spikelet shows the two straight awns, one from each floret.

Compare the awns of these two similar grasses, Yellow Bluestem on the right.

Apices of Feather Fingergrass (left) and Yellow Bluestem (right).

After Feather Fingergrass dries and the seeds blow away, all that is left is a double row of glumes.

How to Identify Feather Fingergrass

  Of grasses with a panicle of fingers, Chloris virgata is more abundant in the higher elevations. Using a hand lens you can see the straight-awned spikelets with the smaller upper floret separated from the larger one in a distinct V-shape (there can be a tiny third floret). There are tufts of long hairs along the edges of the larger of the paired lemmas. Look closely at the micro view above. My first Feather Fingergrass was a beautiful pink color! In Chloris virgata the two paired florets are tightly keeled (folded). The second (infertile) floret has a distinctive and pleasing shape.

Similar Species

There are several palm-like digitate grasses such as Bermudagrass that have fewer and much narrower fingers, like stiff threads that spread out more.

Cane Bluestem (Bothriochloa barbinodis) has larger, fluffier, whiter seedheads.
Yellow Bluestem (Bothriochloa ischaemum) is even more similar: check the longer, bent awns.

Other finger-like grasses include Eleusine indica, Chloris guyana, Dichanthium annulatum, Andropogon halli, and the quite similar Trichloris crinita. You may want to look these up on the internet to compare.