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Chloris barbata; photograph (c) Yu-Huang Wang, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Yu-Huang Wang, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-22

Chloris barbata Sw.

Swollen windmill grass; Purpletop chloris; Swollen fingergrass; Giant finger grass

Poaceae · Algeria, Morocco +49

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Chloris barbata, photograph (c) Matteo Bellucci, some rights reserved (CC BY)Chloris barbata, photograph (c) Matteo Bellucci, some rights reserved (CC BY)Chloris barbata, photograph (c) Matteo Bellucci, some rights reserved (CC BY)Chloris barbata, photograph (c) 祐, some rights reserved (CC BY)Chloris barbata, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedChloris barbata, photograph (c) Richard Littauer, some rights reserved (CC BY) 60 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
13.4°C
Record low 9.7 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,011mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
23–36DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes May to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Chloris barbata (syn. Chloris inflata), the swollen fingergrass or purpletop chloris, is a widespread species of flowering plant in the grass family Poaceae. It is native to drier parts of the Old World tropics and sub-tropics, and it has been introduced to the southern US, most of Latin America and the Caribbean, many tropical islands, and Australia. It is considered an invasive weed species and is host to a number of serious agricultural pest species.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Chloris barbata", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,473 mm of 1,914 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 27.3 °C against a yearly mean of 23.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Rain

1,914 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,473 mm of it May to September. Wettest month August at 350 mm, driest month December at 30 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,215 mm to 3,012 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,011 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,914 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 36 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 13.4 °C, the absolute minimum 9.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 14.4 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 12.3 °C to 22.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.9 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 13.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 62 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -251 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Chloris barbata through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 14.4 °C; 1,914 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.5°10°15°20°25°30°35°32.6° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER9.7° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 23–36RH 62–66%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 471 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C21 / 18–2822 / 19–3024 / 21–3326 / 24–3428 / 26–3329 / 27–3230 / 28–3130 / 28–3029 / 27–3028 / 25–3025 / 23–2922 / 19–28
Night °C14 / 12–2315 / 14–2318 / 16–2421 / 19–2523 / 21–2625 / 23–2625 / 23–2625 / 23–2624 / 22–2522 / 20–2419 / 18–2316 / 14–23
Rain mm31 / 11–23465 / 14–25083 / 29–208130 / 47–197222 / 101–311337 / 95–460331 / 110–474350 / 113–523233 / 115–45266 / 28–27236 / 18–20330 / 11–203
DLI24 / 17–3427 / 20–3833 / 25–4035 / 29–4134 / 30–3734 / 31–3536 / 28–3933 / 29–3631 / 30–3530 / 25–3625 / 20–3223 / 17–32
RH %63 / 56–6863 / 54–6864 / 54–6864 / 56–6864 / 60–6865 / 62–6965 / 63–6866 / 63–6865 / 63–6863 / 60–6763 / 58–6762 / 56–67
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 471 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (751 records in those cells; 7 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1341:6023 (22.925, 121.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 9.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 13.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 471 distinct grid cells holding 751 of the 759 in-range records (7 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1341:6023 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 23.00_121.250, lapse-corrected -251 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 344 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAlgeria, Morocco, Benin, Burkina, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Nigeria, Niger, Togo, Cameroon, Zaïre, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Aldabra, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, Rodrigues, Seychelles, Iran, Gulf States, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, China Southeast, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., South China Sea, Thailand, Vietnam, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Philippines, New Guinea · introduced: Germany, Canary Is., Chagos Archipelago, Comoros, Palestine, Japan, Nansei-shoto, Ogasawara-shoto, Cocos (Keeling) I., Christmas I., Solomon Is., Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia, Fiji, Gilbert Is., Nauru, Niue, New Caledonia, Phoenix Is., Samoa, Tokelau-Manihiki, Tonga, Vanuatu, Wallis-Futuna Is., Line Is., Marquesas, Society Is., Tuamotu, Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is., Wake I., Hawaii, California, Texas, Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Aruba, Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Turks-Caicos Is., Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Galápagos, Peru, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay, Uruguay · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker23.471, 120.486 · in the densest population, 592 records (69% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual or perennial” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 855 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 751 of them in the land cells it reads, of 759 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 434 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 14 km away. 677 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 96 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 855 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Chloris barbata, photograph 1did not loadChloris barbata, photograph 2did not loadChloris barbata, photograph 3did not loadChloris barbata, photograph 4did not loadChloris barbata, photograph 5did not loadChloris barbata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Matteo Bellucci, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) 祐, some rights reserved (CC BY); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Richard Littauer, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Clitoria ternatea Clitoria ternatea Asian pigeonwings Photo: CC BY, Renjith Jacob MathewsAlysicarpus vaginalis Alysicarpus vaginalis White moneywort Photo: CC0, author not statedCyperus imbricatus Cyperus imbricatus Shingle flatsedge Photo: CC BY, Licheng ShihOldenlandia corymbosa Oldenlandia corymbosa Flat-top mille graines Photo: CC BY, Yu-Huang WangWolffia globosa Wolffia globosa Asian watermeal Photo: CC BY, Nguyen-Khanh-Trinh TramDichanthium annulatum Dichanthium annulatum Kleberg's bluestem Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Chloris 6 in the reference

Chloris cucullata Chloris cucullata Hooded windmill grass Photo: CC BY, Frankie SimmonsChloris gayana Chloris gayana Rhodes grass Photo: CC BY, gwynmwilliamsChloris pycnothrix Chloris pycnothrix Spiderweb chloris Photo: CC BY, chiuluanChloris truncata Chloris truncata Windmill-grass Photo: CC0, author not statedChloris verticillata Chloris verticillata Tumble windmill grass Photo: CC0, author not statedChloris virgata Chloris virgata Feathery Rhodes-grass Photo: CC BY, Jo Roberts

Names & registers

Also known as Andropogon barbatus; Chloris barbata subsp. divaricata; Chloris barbata var. divaricata; Chloris inflata; Chloris longifolia and 2 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Poaceae
Described by
Sw.
Native to
Algeria, Morocco, Benin +48
Wild records
855 in range · 434 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 27 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (17 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium, 9 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 23.00_121.250, lapse-corrected -251 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 145 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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