Chloris virgata Swartz. Showy Chloris Habit: Annual, tufted. Culms: 40-60-90 cm. tall, ascending to spreading from a decumbent base, branching at the base and lower nodes, sometimes rooting at the nodes. Blades: 2-7 mm. wide, flat, rough above and below and on the margins, very sparsely long hairy, papillose at the base. Sheaths: Compressed-keeled, shorter than the internodes, often a few hairs at the throat. Ligule: Membranous, about 1 mm. long. Inflorescence: Spikes 7-16, aggregate at the summit of the culms, included at the base or exserted; sessile, erect or somewhat spreading, 2-8 cm. long, pale green or tawny, feathery or silky, the slender, scabrous rachis spikelet bearing to the base. Spikelets: Crowded, without the awns 2.5-4 mm. long, flattened, 2-flowered, the lower fertile, the upper staminate or reduced to a sterile lemma, rachilla disarticulating above the glumes and prolonged behind the palea. Glumes: 1-nerved, slightly scabrous on the keel, lanceolate, membranous, first 1.5-2 mm. long, acute or obtuse, the second 3-3.5 mm. long, awn-pointed. Lemmas: Exclusive of the awn 3.5 mm. long, 3-5-nerved, flattened, somewhat humpbacked on the keel, long ciliate on the back or margins, the mid-nerve nearly always prolonged into a slender scabrous awn, 5-10 mm. long. Palea: 2-keeled, about equaling its lemma, oblanceolate, abruptly acute, the margins folded inwards. Rudiments: Narrowly cuneate, truncate, the awn as long as that of the lemma. Fruit: Grain free within the lemma and palea. Habitat: Sandy soil, open ground, fields and waste places. Kansas Range: Reno county. Remarks: Weedy.