Origin: Introduced   Season: Warm Habitat Description: Sandy washes and alkaline seeps, often disturbed places. Commonly cultivated lawn grass in the southwest low desert cities; well established along most waterways in Arizona. Plant Communities:Disturbed Areas Elevation: Below 6000 feet
General Description
Desc:
A plant with an extensive system of stout rhizomes; stems mostly creeping and stoloniferous, with short internodes producing wiry erect flowering stalk, often forms beds or mats. Identification Notes: Perennial with stolons and rhizomes, forms extensive mats; seedheads digitate (finger-like); sheaths smooth or with scattered hairs; leaves flat, short, narrow; ligule a conspicuous ring of white hairs. Grass Type: Perennial mat or sod-forming Rhizomes: Y Stolons: Y Large Dense Clump (> 2 feet): N Bushy (highly branched): N Height with Seedheads: 12 to 24 inches Seedhead Structure: Branched - fingerlike Seedhead Droops: N Flowering Period: May - Oct Flower Characteristics
Number of Flowers per Spikelet: One-flowered Spikelets One-sided: Y Awns: Absent Three Awns: N Awns Bent: N Flower and Seedhead Notes: Seedhead has spikelike branches arranged windmill fashion at the top of the stem. Seedhead stems mostly creeping but produce erect wiry flowering stalks at frequent intervals. Spikelets in 2 rows along one side.
Vegetative Charcteristics
Blade Hairy:
N
Blade with White Margins:
N
Blade Cross section:
Flat
Blade Notes:
Blades short, narrow, 1/2 to 2-1/4 inches long to 1/8 inch wide.
Sheath Hairy:
N
Tuft of Hairs at top of Sheath or Collar:
Y
Ligules:
Membranous and hairy Auricles (Ear-like lobes at collar area:
N
Forage Value:
Good if irrigated.
Arizona Cooperative Extension
Yavapai County
840 Rodeo Dr #C
Prescott, AZ 86305
(928) 445-6590