Windmill Grass

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Windmill Grass - Colleen Miller | Windmill Grass - Colleen Miller

Chloris truncata


Tufted low growing grass to 45 cm tall. Small flat or loosely folded pale green leaves. An umbrella-like flowerhead up to 30 cm wide, purple to black. The seedhead has 5-13 spikes radiating like blades of a windmill from the stem. The seeds have a distinct bristles or awns to 15 mm long.


Details
Flora Type
Grasses
Distinctive Features

When mature the entire seed head breaks away and tumbles along in the wind.

Biology

Annual or short-lived perennial. Sandy soils and clay loams. Typically found in well-watered sites in grasslands and woodlands, often as a dominant understorey species. Also disturbed places and drainage lines. A useful grass for soil conservation purposes. An important native pasture grass in some areas of Australia, but weedy in others.

Flowering Time

Nov-Jun

Taxonomy
Phylum
Tracheophyta (Vascular Plants)
Class
Magnoliopsida (Flowering Plants)
Order
Poales
Family
Poaceae
Genus
Chloris
Species
truncata

Very valuable warm-season grass. Can increase its dominance under moderate grazing regimes - young growth is grazed by livestock. Killed by severe frost.


Interesting Facts
Similar Species

Similar flowers to Curly Windmill-grass Enteropogon ramosus but the seed shape is different in the two closely related species.