Grass Description
Common as a weed in ditches, cultivated fields and wastelands.
General Description
Large lush green and aggressive sod grass, 3 to 6 feet tall, growing from wide spreading scaly rhizomes. Large open and spreading seedheads.
Large perennial, stout, scaly rhizomes. Leaves flat with white margins and prominent white midveins. Ligules are hairy. Seedhead is large, densely flowered, reddish. Spikelets paired, one fertile, sessile, awned, one stemmed and sterile. Awn is once-bent.
Flower Characteristics
Branched pyramidal seedhead consisting of 2 to 7 pairs of spikelets. Pairs of spikelets; one sesile and perfect-flowered, fertile and awned, but awn falls off readily; one stemmed, staminate, and not awned. Seeds are conspicuously black or red.
Vegetative Characteristics
Blades 4 to 32 inches long, up to 1-1/2 inches wide. Large, flat and broad, prominent white mid-rib.
Moderately palatable and nutritious but may be toxic when prussic acid accumulates.