Chloris verticillata

Windmill grass, Windmill Grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Windmill grass is a naturalized perennial grass found in northern Sierra Nevada foothills, San Francisco Bay Area, and expected in other regions at elevations below 300 meters in disturbed areas. Flowering from July to October, this grass produces pale green to straw-colored spikelet clusters in 2 to 4 distinctive whorled branches up to 15 centimeters long. Growing with slender stems 10 to 40 centimeters tall, it forms spreading clumps with distinctive digitate inflorescences. Its narrow leaves are less than 15 centimeters long and approximately 3 millimeters wide, with hairy ligules and glabrous leaf sheaths. The grass produces small spikelets 2 to 3.5 millimeters long with lanceolate glumes and fertile florets bearing awns 4 to 9 millimeters in length.

Habitat: Uncommon. Disturbed areas

Bloom period: Jul-Oct

Elevation: < 300 m

Bioregions: n SNF, SnFrB, expected elsewhere

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.