Chloris truncata (Windmill Grass) As Lawn

Chloris truncata (Windmill Grass) is a tufted perennial plant. Sometimes it behaves as an annual but I have proved it to be perennial if mown. Sometimes it spreads sideways by stolons in much the same way as couch grass but not so vigorous. It is wide spread in South Australia and also occurs in the Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.

It naturally occurs on sandy and clay soils including disturbed sites such as roadsides, and in grassy woodlands.

Information from the Nativel Grasses Resource Group says that the seed requires a lot of moisture to germinate. It has been seen sprouting while floating on the water in a sheep trough. An easy way to replicate this is to sow the seed in a pot and stand the pot in a container of water deep enough so that the surface of the pot remains very moist. Reduce the water level as the seed germinates.

We had about 3mm rain today. I don’t know how that will affect my experiment mentioned in the last post.