Leptochloa filiformis (Lam.)
Red Sprangletop

Habit: 		Annual, branched at the decumbent base, foliage and panicles often reddish or purple.
Culms: 		40-70 cm. tall or often dwarf, erect, glabrous.
Blades: 	Flat, thin, lax, 5-20 cm. long, 5-12 (2-6) mm. wide, narrowed at the base,
		scabrous, sparingly papillose-pilose near the base.
Sheaths: 	Shorter than the internodes, mostly papillose-hairy, the lower often almost glabrous.
Ligule: 	Short, lacerate-toothed.
Inflorescence: 	Panicle somewhat viscid, often partially included at the base,
		10-40 cm. long, about half the height of the plant, made up of 20-40 (-75)
		approximate, slender spikelike racemes, 5-15 cm. long.
Spikelets: 	3-4-flowered, 1-2 mm. long, rather distant on the rachis, usually close,
		flattened, sessile, in two rows, forming many long slender spikelike racemes,
		the uppermost floret usually imperfect or rudimentary, rachilla disarticulating
		above the glumes and between the florets.
Glumes: 	Membranous, with one scabrous nerve, acute, keeled, a little unequal,
		usually shorter than the spikelets, but longer than the first floret,
		first 1.5-1.8 mm. long, the second 1.7-2 mm. long.
Lemmas: 	About 1.5 mm. long, 2-toothed, broad, ciliate on the nerves and margins,
		3-nerved, obtuse or rounded at the apex.
Palea: 		Shorter than the lemma.
Habitat: 	Open or shady ground, fields and sandy riverbanks.  July-September.
Kansas Range:	Scattered in east two thirds.
Remarks: 	Often a weed.