Small Crab Grass
Small Crab-grass (Digitaria humifusa) and Large Crab-grass bloom in midsummer and later and are very similar in appearance, differing chiefly in size and in the number of spikes. Small Crab-grass is usually less common, and the second scale of each spikelet is much longer than is the second scale of the larger species. In many a dooryard and near many a garden Large Crab-grass is the most noticeable growth of August and September, when the dark green stems spread over the ground and lift their narrow, deeply coloured spikes which, from the summits of the stems, spread widely, like the rays of an umbel, or like the open fingers of a hand.
Near the Large Crab-grass we often notice the contrast of great spreading panicles of Old 'Witch-grass (Panicum capillare) which raises its blossoming-heads like shower-fountains of green, and soon rigidly extends the slender branches until the panicles are sometimes two feet across.