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• Grass-like plants
• True grasses
• Chloris cucullata

Chloris cucullata — hooded windmill-grass

Facts

Native to the southern United States and northern Mexico, hooded windmill-grass is a rare visitor to New England, having been collected only from the waste areas of nineteenth-century wool-carding factories in Maine.

Habitat

Anthropogenic (man-made or disturbed habitats)

Characteristics

• Flowers

  Anther number

  3

  Awn on glume

  the glume has no awn

  Floret lower bract texture

  the lemma is thin and flexible

  Floret number

  1–2

  Glume relative length

  neither glume is quite as long as all of the florets

  Glume veins

  • 1
  • 3

  Inflorescence arrangement

  the spikelets are uniform

  Inflorescence axis orientation

  • the inflorescence axis is arched or curved outward
  • the inflorescence axis is straight

  Inflorescence branches

  the flowers are attached to branches rather than to the main axis of the inflorescence

  Inflorescence length

  Up to 50 mm

  Inflorescence type (general)

  the spikelets are borne on stalks or on branches

  Inflorescence type (specific)

  the inflorescence is branched and the branches all grow from the same side of the plant and look like spikes

  Lemma awn base

  the awn is attached right at the tip of the lemma

  Lemma awn length

  0–1.5 mm

  Lemma awn number

  • the lemma has no awn
  • the lemma has one awn on it

  Lemma base hairs

  the lemma has hairs at the base

  Lemma cross-section

  the lemma is V-shaped if you cut across the midpoint

  Lemma marginal vein hairs

  the marginal vein of the lemma has fine hairs on it

  Lemma surface

  the surface of the lemma is relatively smooth (not counting any longitudinal veins or hairs)

  Lemma vein number

  • 1
  • 3
  • 5
  • 7 or more

  One or more florets

  there is more than one floret per spikelet

  Palea relative length

  palea is one half to fully as long as lemma

  Spikelet axis tip

  there is no extension of the spikelet axis beyond the tip of the spikelet

  Spikelet length

  1.5–2 mm

  Spikelets spiny

  the spikelets do not appear spiny

  Upper glume length

  1–1.5 mm

• Growth form

  Lifespan

  the plant lives more than two years

• Leaves

  Leaf auricles

  the leaves do not have auricles

  Leaf blade width

  2–4 mm

  Leaf ligule length

  0.7–1 mm

  Leaf ligule type

  the leaf ligule is in the form of a membrane with fine hairs

  Leaf sheath hair type

  there are no hairs on the surface of the leaf sheath

  Leaf sheath hairs

  there are no hairs on the surface of the leaf sheath

• Place

  Habitat

  terrestrial

  New England state

  Maine

  Specific habitat

  man-made or disturbed habitats

• Stem, shoot, branch

  Stem spacing

  the stems grow close together in compact clusters or tufts

Wetland status

Not classified

New England distribution and conservation status

From the dichotomous key of Flora Novae Angliae