Southern Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Digitaria sanguinalis (L.) Scop.
- Family: Grass (Poaceae)
- Flowering: June-September
- Field Marks: Crabgrass is recognized by its slender spikes that radiate like fingers from a hand, except that the spikes do not all arise at the same place at the end of the stem.
- Habitat: Disturbed soil.
- Habit: Annual grass with fibrous roots
- Stems: Upright or spreading, often rooting at the lower nodes, up to 3 feet long, smooth.
- Leaves: Elongated, narrow, up to 6 inches long, less than 1/2 inch wide, hairy; sheaths with hairs with swollen bases.
- Flowers: Borne in spikelets; spikelets 1-flowered, arranged along 3-10 slender spikes that radiate from the tip of the stem.
- Sepals: 0.
- Petals: 0.
- Stamens: 3.
- Pistils: Ovary superior; stigmas 2, feathery.
- Grains: Small, smooth.
- Notes: This native grass from Europe is a problem weed in cultivated and disturbed soil throughout North America. It is sometimes called finger-grass or pigeon-grass.
Previous Species -- Velvet Dichanthelium (Dichanthelium scoparium)
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Next Species -- Jungle-rice (Echinocholea colona)
