Crabgrass

Crabgrass

Crabgrass is very noticeable in lawns. It is a rapid growing; coarse textured yellowish-green grass that is conspicuous when found growing among fine textured, dark green cool-season turfgrasses. The stems spread outward and are very branched. Roots develop at nodes on the prostrate stems. The first leaf is only about twice as long as it is wide. It is tinged light purple and has a white strip ninning down the center. Both sides have silky, shiny hair. Leaves are 2/5- to 1/2-inch wide and 1/3- to 1-inch long. The leaf sheaths of large crabgrass seedlings are tinged purple and are covered with long stiff hairs. The ligule, a thin membrane or row of hairs at the top of the junction of the leaf sheath and the leaf blade, is membranous, flat at the top and smooth. Large and small crabgrass are the only species of the grass family which have a membranous ligule. Auricles, the appendages projecting around the stem from both sides of the collar, are absent.

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