Chloris virgata Swartz  

Chloris Swartz ( 1788 ) Annual or perennial grasses . Leaf - blades linear , flat or folded ; ligule membranous . Inflorescence 4-20 digitately arranged spikes . Spikelets sessile or almost so , densely arranged in 2 rows on abaxial side of the rhachi and easily . disarticulating above the persistent glumes , 2-6 - flowered , usually only the lowest fertile , the rest sterile and / or much reduced ; glumes unequal , membranous hyaline with a green tough midrib ; lower lemma cartilaginous or coriaceous , laterally compressed and keeled , entire or 2 - lobed at apex , all or some of the lemmas awned , awns as long as or usually much longer than the spikelet . Of its 40 or 50 tropical and warm temperate species , only 4 have been recorded from Saudi Arabia .