[Andropogon barbatus L. (1771), non L. (1759); Chloris in/lata Link; C. paraguayensis Steud.]
(nat) Swollen fingergrass, mau ‘u lei
Annuals; culms erect or sometimes decumbent at base and rooting at lower nodes, 30-70 cm tall, glabrous. Sheaths 2-6 cm long, glabrous, compressed, shorter than internodes, usually pilose at throat; ligule ca. 0.5 mm long, membranous, minutely erose; blades flat, 2-12 cm long, 1-5 mm wide, upper blades decreasing in size to nearly obsolete, upper surface usu-ally sparsely long-pilose, margins scabrous. Inflorescences of 5—15(—22) digitate, ascending to spreading, purple, feathery spikes 4-6(-8) cm long; spikelets closely imbricate, 3-flowered; glumes narrow, acute, first glume 1-1.5 mm long, second glume 2-2.5 mm long; first lemma 2-2.5 mm long, obovate, keel sparsely pilose, marginal nerves silky pubescent in upper Vi, apex rounded, awn slender, 0.5-1 cm long, callus appressed pilose; palea 2-2.5 mm long and nearly as broad as lemma, keels marginal; apical rudiment ca. 1 mm long, consisting of 2 triangular-truncate, thin, sterile lemmas, one within the other, situated at nearly the height of the fertile lemma, awns ca. 5 mm long. Caryopsis brown, fusiform, ca. 1.1 mm long, enclosed within the persistent lemma and palea. [2n = 20, 40, ca. 50, 56.] Native to Central America, the West Indies, and South America, now widely naturalized; in Hawai‘i naturalized in dry, disturbed areas such as along roadsides and in vacant lots and pastures, 0-550 m, on Kure and Midway atolls and all of the main islands except Kaho'olawe. First collected on 0‘ahu in 1902 (Pahus.n., BISH).