Tall windmill grass

Chloris ventricosa

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Chloris ventricosa

CATEGORY: C4  perennial

IDENTIFICATION TIPS

  • Erect, warm season, stoloniferous,  perennial grass to 1m tall
  • Leaves are hairless, 4-10cm long, narrow  and usually flat; ligules have short hairs
  • The windmill-like digitate seedhead has 3–5  limp pale-green to purplish-black branches that are 4–10cm long
  • Spikelets have a blunt apex and the awns  are shorter than the spikelet
  • Flowers from summer to autumn

CLIMATIC & SOIL  REQUIREMENTS

  • Most common on red  loamy soils in moister run-on and partly shaded areas
  • Moderately drought tolerant, but low frost  tolerance

GRAZING & NUTRITIONAL  VALUE

  • Low to moderate  grazing value
  • Digestibility  ranges from 33-72%
  • Crude protein 8-15%

MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES

  • Has a low annual production, but produces  most of this very rapidly following summer rains
  • Acts as a useful soil stabiliser due to its  stoloniferous habit
  • Readily grazed by cattle prior to flowering  during summer
  • Can withstand regular defoliation and has  increased production under moderate grazing pressure
  • Rotational grazing or resting following  good summer rains aids establishment, persistence and spread

SIMILAR PLANTS

  • Curly windmill grasses  (Enteropogon species) and slender windmill  grass (Chloris divaricata) spikelets  have pointed apices
  • Windmill grass (Chloris truncata) is common and has 6-9  branches in the seedhead, each 4-20cm long; mature spikelets are black

(Chloris truncata. Plants joined by thick stolons: H Rose)