Microstegium vimineum (Trin.) A. Camus (Zofnass Family Preserve)
Lax herb, rooting at nodes, annual, 60-100 cm tall. Leaves lanceolate-linear, 5-8 cm long. Inflorescences with rachises articulate. Spikelets all alike, paired, one sessile, the other pedicellate, flattened, both eventually deciduous, the glumes equal, awnless, the lower one flat, 2-3-veined, the upper one keeled, 3-veined; lemmas 2, hyaline, the lower one sterile, the fertile one often awnless or with slender awn 4-8 mm long.
Japanese stilt grass.
Tropical Asia.
From New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio southward. Rapidly invading elsewhere.
In open weedy areas, especially along roadside, but also becoming established in forests.
Flowers and sets fruit from August onward.
Probably pollinated by the wind and dispersed by animals that get seeds stuck to their fur and feathers and also by water. Humans are probably the most important dispersal agents.
We have not been able to find the meaning of the species epithet.
Not applicable to an alien invasive such as this species.
First found in the United States in 1919 and was probably introduced as packing material in shipments from China.