Index / Search / Chloris gayana

§1 Plant

Chloris gayana Kunth

vernacular Rhodes grass — species · Poaceae


USDA
CHGA2
GBIF
5289618
Rank
species
Rhodes grass (Chloris gayana)
Platephotograph · Greg TasneyCC BY-SA source · iNaturalist ↗

§2Habit & range

Habit and range

Growth habit
Graminoid
Duration
Perennial
Group
Monocot
Family
Poaceae Barnhart
Genus
Chloris
§2a

Native status, by region

  • HI Hawaii Introduced
  • L48 Lower 48 States Introduced
  • VI U.S. Virgin Islands Introduced
§2b

County-level range

· 45 counties across 7 states/territories
Legend Native · 0 Introduced · 45 Both · 0 Hover a county for detail.

§3Cultivation specs · USDA

Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.

§3a

Tolerances

Drought
Medium
Shade
High
Moisture use
Low
Fire
Low
Salinity
Medium
Anaerobic
None
CaCO₃
None
Hedging
None
§3b

Climate & soil

Cold tolerance
-8 °F minimum
Frost-free days
180 min.
Precipitation
30–60 in/yr
pH range
5–7
Root depth
6 in min.
Fertility need
Low
Soil texture
medium, fine
§3c

Form & growth

Growth form
Multiple Stem
Growth rate
Moderate
Lifespan
Moderate
Mature height
3 ft
Foliage texture
Fine
Foliage colour
Green
Porosity (summer)
Moderate
Porosity (winter)
Porous
Flower colour
White
Fruit colour
Brown
Fire resistant
No
N fixation
None
Toxicity
None
§3d

Reproduction

Bloom period
Late Summer
Seed abundance
High
Seed begins
Fall
Seed ends
Fall
Spread rate
Rapid
Stratify
No
Seeds / lb
2,142,800
Propagation
seed
§3e

Use & availability

Commercial availability
Routinely Available
Nursery stock
No
Browse palatability
Medium
Graze palatability
Medium
Palatable, human
No
Protein potential
Medium
Lumber
No
Christmas tree
No

§4Counties, by state

Recorded in 45 counties across 7 states/territories.


§5Sources & provenance

USDA PLANTS

Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.

plants.usda.gov/CHGA2 ↗

GBIF Backbone

Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.

gbif.org/species/5289618 ↗

Record version

Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:

usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26

fetched 2026-05-26T20:46:58Z