Grass family (Poaceae) Description: This adventive grass is a
summer annual about ½2' tall that is tufted at the base; its
culms branch occasionally. The lower culms are decumbent, while
the upper culms are ascending to spreading. Each slender culm is
terete, glabrous, and pale green to pale purple. The blades of
the alternate leaves are up to 4" long and 1/3" across; they are
light to medium green or blue-green, rather flat, and mostly
hairless; sometimes there are scattered white hairs toward the
base of the blades. The inflated sheaths of the leaves cover
most of the culms; these sheaths are finely veined, hairless,
and the same color as the blades. The upper culms terminate in
digitate clusters of 2-6 racemes. These racemes are very narrow,
spike-like, and up to 5" long. Each raceme has 2 rows of
spikelets and a flattened central stalk (or rachis) about 1 mm.
across. These spikelets occur in pairs or individually along the
racemes on very short pedicels. Each spikelet is about 2 mm.
long, dark green or pu