Sorghum halepense (Johnson grass, "Seibanmorokoshi")

Japanese name: セイバンモロコシ （西蕃蜀黍）
Scientific name: Sorghum halepense

[Overview]
A perennial 0.5–2 m tall, found in fields and along roadsides.
It has thick creeping rhizomes.
The leaves are simple and alternate, linear, 20–60 cm long and 1–2 cm wide, with a thick, distinct midrib.
The leaf margins are rough.
The flower spike is a panicle formed by many spikelets gathered at the stem tip.
The spikelets occur in pairs, an awnless male pedicelled spikelet and a larger, awned bisexual sessile spikelet.

[History]
In Japan it was first collected in Chiba in 1943, and it is now naturalized in various places.

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