Grass Description
Found in periodically wet soils in grasslands; disturbed areas; along stream banks, ditches, roadsides, pastures.
General Description
Bluish-green stoloniferous and sometimes rhizomatous, up to 2-1/2 feet tall grass that forms dense stands. Stems are wiry and smooth with swollen and densely hairy nodes.
Stolons to 3 feet, stems to 2-1/2 feet, collars densely hairy. Blades bluish-green flat or involute, prominent white mid-vein. Seedhead narrow; short appressed branches; spikelets rounded, 2-flowered; glumes similar in length; glumes,lemma not hairy.
Flower Characteristics
Seedhead is narrow and contracted with short simple, appressed branches. Spikelets are 2-flowered with one fertile floret. Spikelets are wrapped in bracts with vertical green veins, the purple stigmas usually peeking out before seeds ripen.
Vegetative Characteristics
Blades are 2 to 8 inches long, flat or loosely inrolled and light bluish-green in color. The mid-vein is white and prominent.
Fair to good for wildlife and livestock. Quail and doves eat the seed in the fall and early winter.