

Spreading Windmill Grass Chloris divaricata
Spreading Windmill Grass is an introduced perennial grass, found in Hawaii, the lower 48 states, and the Pacific Basin.
More about this plant
Chloris divaricata, commonly known as spreading windmill grass or slender chloris, is a perennial grass species native to Australia. A member of the family Poaceae and order Poales, it typically grows in dense tussocks and produces a distinctive flowering head of several slender spikes arranged in a spreading, star-like or windmill-shaped pattern. The species is widely distributed mostly throughout inland and coastal New South Wales and Queensland, recognised for its resilience and value in soil stabilisation and land rehabilitation. Other names include star grass, Dog's tooth star grass, and small chloris. Wikipedia →
Spreading Windmill Grass is flagged invasive in the U.S. These natives fill a similar niche — same growth habit, bloom season, height, and region — so you keep the look and feed local wildlife instead of spreading a problem.
Growing & care
USDA PLANTS · TRY- Hardiness
- ≥ zone 8 derived from its U.S. range
- Lifespan
- Perennial
- Foliage
- Broadleaf
Wildlife & pollinators
How pollinator value is scored →❧ Caterpillar hosts ~2 caterpillar species
Chloris supports ~2 caterpillar species.
Native butterfly & moth caterpillars are the base of the terrestrial food web — most songbirds rear their young almost entirely on them. As a host for native Lepidoptera this is a modest genus.
Recorded feeding on Chloris in North America, including:
How we know this (1) Methods & honest limits
A recorded categorical fact: each species is tagged C3 (standard), C4 (heat/water-efficient) or CAM (succulent, night-time CO₂ uptake) — or a facultative combination. We only show a trait card for the noteworthy C4/CAM cases; C3 is the unremarkable majority, kept in the data but not surfaced as a card.
Sources for this entry (15) Open & cited
Cite this page Open data, please attribute
PlantKey’s data is open under CC BY-SA 4.0 — free to reuse and adapt, with attribution and the same licence. Photos keep their own per-image licence + credit (see Sources above).
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