Digitaria sanguinalis (L.) Scop. Poaceae (Grass Family Europe Hairy Crabgrass

                                       September Photo

Plant Characteristics:  Annual, usually much branched at base, often purplish, the culms 1-9 (-15) dm. long, with ascending flowering shoots; blades 5-10 mm. wide, pubescent to scaberulous; sheaths pilose or villous; ligule 1-3 mm.; racemes few to several, 5-15 cm. long, digitate; spikelets ca. 3 mm. long, +/- 1 mm. wide, lanceolate to ovate, purple in fr.; 1st glume minute, 2d ca. 1.5 mm. long, ciliate; sterile lemma nerved, the lateral internerves strigose; fertile lemma pale.

Habitat:  Common weed in lawns, gardens, etc., below 8000 ft.; several Plant Communities.  June-Sept.

Name:  Latin, digitus, finger because of the infl. Munz, Flora So. Calif. 962). Sanguin-eus, bloody, blood red. (Bailey 21).  Referring to the red or purplish color of the culms.  (John Johnson).

General:  Rare in the study area, having been found only once and this in a damp area near the termination of Back Bay Dr. into Eastbluff Dr.  (my comment).       On account of its abundant growth in late summer under favorable conditions, it is often utilized for forage and sometimes cut for hay.  (Robbins et al.) 71.       Digitaria species have been known to cause hay fever and asthma.  (Fuller 382).      Strawberry growers let it fill in the spaces between the rows of berry plants where, otherwise, they would have to scatter straw.  All crabgrass is killed by the very first frost.  (Crockett 85).      In the southern United States, the larvae of the Fiery Skipper butterfly, Hylephila phyleus, feed on weedy grasses like crabgrass and Bermuda grass.  (No author, sbnature, A Journal of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Spring 2004/Vol. 2. No.1, 6-8).       About 300 species of warmer regions.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 962).

Text Ref:  Hickman, Ed. 1252; Munz, Flora So. Calif. 962; Robbins et al. 70.

Photo Ref:  Not recorded.

Identity: by R. De Ruff, confirmed by F. Roberts.

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 366.

Have plant specimen.

Last edit 10/18/04.