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Digitaria ischaemum
Also called Red millet, smooth finger-grass, Smooth Finger Grass, Smooth Summer Grass, Small Crabgrass, Smooth Crabgrass, Small Crabgrass
Smooth crabgrass is a low-growing annual grass, native to Europe and Asia, that is widely known as a roadside and garden weed in warm temperate regions. It reproduces from seed, so the key to managing it is preventing seeding and keeping lawns and beds dense.
Digitaria ischaemum is a species of crabgrass known by the common names smooth crabgrass and small crabgrass. It is native to Europe and Asia, but it is known throughout much of the warm temperate world as an introduced species and often a common roadside and garden weed. It is an annual grass producing an inflorescence with two or more narrow branches lined with tiny spikelets.
It is easily confused with other members in the genus, particularly southern crabgrass in California which differs by having spikelets of nearly twice the length. It may also be confused with Bermuda Grass, but differs in being a much taller plant with a much longer inflorescence. It reproduces by seed. The leaves on this grass often form above the base of the plant, and it is usually singular, rarely forming large clumps.
They grow in terrestrial regions and can be seen in central Europe and Japan, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont.
African couchgrass · Raishan · Crabgrass · Digitgrass · Fonio · Black fonio · Indian crabgrass · Hairy crabgrass · Crabgrass
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Digitaria ischaemum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
