Crabgrass
| crabgrass finger-grass |
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| Digitaria sanguinalis | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Monocots |
| (unranked): | Commelinids |
| Order: | Poales |
| Family: | Poaceae |
| Subfamily: | Panicoideae |
| Tribe: | Paniceae |
| Genus: |
Digitaria Haller 1768, conserved name not Heist. ex Fabr. 1759 nor Scop. 1772 nor Adans. 1763 |
| Synonyms | |
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Digitaria is a genus of plants in the grass family native to tropical and warm temperate regions. Common names include crabgrass, finger-grass, and fonio. They are slender monocotyledonous annual and perennial lawn, pasture, and forage plants; some are often considered lawn pests. Digitus is the Latin word for "finger", and they are distinguished by the long, finger-like inflorescences they produce.
Digitaria species occur in tropical, subtropical, and temperate regions of both hemispheres. Though some Digitaria species are weeds, others have uses, especially as food. The seeds, most notably those of fonio, can be toasted and ground into a flour, which can be used to make porridge or fermented to make beer. Fonio has been widely used as a staple crop in parts of Africa. It also has decent nutrient qualities as a forage for cattle.
The prevalent species of Digitaria in North America are large crabgrass (D. sanguinalis), sometimes known as hairy crabgrass; and smooth crabgrass (D. ischaemum). These species often become problem weeds in lawns and gardens, growing especially well in thin lawns that are watered lightly, underfertilized, and poorly drained. They are annual plants, and one plant is capable of producing 150,000 seeds per season. The seeds germinate in the late spring and early summer and outcompete the domesticated lawn grasses, expanding outward in a circle up to 30 cm (12 in) in diameter. In the autumn when the plants die, they leave large voids in the lawn. The voids then become prime areas for the crabgrass seeds to germinate the following season.
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Wikipedia