Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Section: Common Name: Scientific Name: Family:
Account for Asian Crabgrass - Digitaria bicornis   (Lam.) Roem. & Schult.
Members of Poaceae:
Members of Digitaria with account distribution info or public map:
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Section 5 » Order Cyperales » Family Poaceae
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Author(Lam.) Roem. & Schult.
DistributionThis exotic grass was collected by J. Schmidt in Scotland County in 2001 (Winthrop University Herbarium) and by Eric Ungberg in Craven County in November 2021 (NCU464559); photos are on iNaturalist. SERNEC also shows a collection froom Battle Park in Chapel Hill (Orange County).

"Widely distributed in the tropics and subtropics worldwide" (Weakley 2025).
AbundanceApparently very rare away from civilization.
Habitat"Sandy fields, roadsides, and disturbed areas" (Weakley 2025).
PhenologyFlowers and fruits all year in its range.
IdentificationPlants are annual; spikelets range from 2.5 to 4.1 mm long. Plants lack stolons and rhizomes. Culms (stems) usually decumbent and rooting at nodes, but may be erect. Lower lemmas of the upper spikelets have widely spreading hairs, whereas lower lemmas of lower spikelets have short, appressed hairs or areb glabrous.
Taxonomic Comments
Other Common Name(s)Tropical Crabgrass
State RankSE
Global RankG5
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