Japanese name: メヒシバ（雌日芝） Scientific name:Digitaria ciliaris
[Overview]
An annual up to 80 cm tall, commonly seen on sunny roadsides and vacant lots.
It is highly prolific and often grows in colonies.
The stem branches at the base, creeps along the ground, and roots at the nodes.
The leaves are alternate, linear, 8–20 cm long, and soft.
The leaf sheaths have long hairs.
Three to eight racemes (spikes) 5–15 cm long emerge from the stem tip in a palmate arrangement, and the margins of the raceme axis are rough.
The racemes are ascending to spreading and do not gather into a bundle.
The spikelets are borne in two rows on the raceme, lanceolate with a pointed tip, and about 0.3 cm long.
Each spikelet consists of 2 florets, but the first floret on the outer side is reduced to only the lemma.
The lemma and palea of the second floret on the axis side are thick and hairless.
The first glume is small and triangular, and the second glume is 1/2–1/3 the length of the spikelet.
[Notes]
The Japanese name derives from the fact that it is a grass growing in sunny places and has a gentler appearance than Ohishiba.
