Large Crabgrass and Southern Crabgrass

Scientific Name - Digitaria sanguinalis (L.) Scop. Digitaria ciliaris (Retz.) Koel.
Family - Gramineae

Tufted or prostrate to spreading summer annual with branched stems that root at the nodes. Leaf blade, longer than 2 inches (5 cm), usually hairy on both surfaces, visible toothed membranous ligule at base of leaf. Leaf sheath with dense hairs. Spikelets in two to nine finger-like branches. Southern crabgrass is distinguished from large crabgrass on the basis of the length of the second glume (a bract at the base of a spikelet). These species differ from tropical crabgrass in that the seedhead branches arise from different points of attachments along the stalk. Both species reproduce by seed. Southern crabgrass occurs northward on the coastal plain occasionally to Connecticut, more common southward east of the Appalachian region, through Florida, extending west into Texas and north into Kansas and Nebraska. Also occurs in the West Indies, Mexico, Central America and South America. Large Crabgrass is found throughout North America, except Florida, and the warm temperate regions of the world. Both species thought to be introduced to the Old World.