Japanese name: スズメノテッポウ（雀鉄砲） Scientific name:Alopecurus aequalis
[Overview]
An annual or biennial 20–40 cm tall, found in paddy fields and fields, often growing in colonies.
The whole plant is soft and hairless.
It germinates in autumn, stays low in height while overwintering, and begins to grow in spring.
The stems are hollow and branch freely, growing in tufts.
The leaves are whitish green and linear, about 5–15 cm long, with pointed tips.
At the stem tip it produces a green, cylindrical flower spike 3–8 cm long and about 0.5 cm in diameter, densely packed with many spikelets.
The spikelets are broadly ovate and consist of 1 floret; the awn projects slightly beyond the spikelet.
The anthers are orange-yellow to yellowish brown.
Two ecotypes are known, a paddy type and an upland-field type; the upland-field type has somewhat smaller spikelets.
Some authorities treat each ecotype as a separate variety.
[Notes]
The Japanese name likens the small cylindrical flower spike to a gun used by sparrows.
