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Weed Description: Summer annual, having a prostrate or ascending growth habit, with leaves and sheaths that do not have hairs and stems that do not root at the nodes. Found throughout the United States. |
Smooth Crabgrass: Digitaria ischaemum
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Weed Description: Summer annual, having a prostrate or ascending growth habit, with leaves and sheaths that do not have hairs and stems that do not root at the nodes. Found throughout the United States. |
| Seedling: Sheaths and blades not hairy, few hairs at mouth only, with a jagged membranous ligule. Seedlings are upright, leaves are rolled in the bud, and the first leaf blade is lanceolate to linear. |  |
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Stems: Prostrate or lying
on the ground with tips ascending (decumbent) up to 60 cm long, branching at lower nodes
but not rooting. Flowers: Seedhead composed of 2-6 branches (spikes) at the top of stems, each 10 cm long. Spikelets 1.8-2.1 mm long, 0.8-0.9 mm wide, in two rows along the spike, with short mushroom-like hairs. |
| Leaves: Blades 5-14
cm long, 2-7 mm wide, without hairs. Sheaths are without hairs and closed, with hairs in
the collar region only. Ligules are 1-2 mm long, membranous with even margins. Leaves and
sheaths may turn dark red or maroon with age. Roots: Fibrous root system. |
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| Identifying Characteristics: Sheath and leaves without hairs, mushroom-like hairs on spikelet. May be distinguished from Large Crabgrass (Digitaria sanguinalis) by the absence of hairs on the leaves and sheath, and only a few hairs found in the collar region. Additionally, smooth crabgrass does not root at the nodes like large crabgrass. |