Digitaria sanguinalis (L.) Scop.
A solitary or tufted, green or purplish annual. Stems hairless, ascending, up to 60 cm tall. Leaf blade up to 18 cm long, 3 to 10 mm wide; hairless or sparsely hairy; distinctly veined; flat; soft. Ligule blunt or flat-topped; 1 to 2 mm long. Inflorescence a terminal, whorled panicle of 4 to 10 finger-like racemes; racemes spreading to erect, 4 to 18 cm long. Spikelets 2 to 3.5 mm, lanceolate or elliptical; with 2 florets, the lower one sterile and the upper one hermaphrodite. Lower glume 0.1 to 0.3 mm long, the upper one 0.8 to 1.8 mm long; glumes 3-veined. Lemma of the upper floret 2 to 3.5 mm long.
Local:Fairly common in Gibraltar. A weed of cultivated plots.
Global: Found throughout Mediterranean Europe, north Africa, Asia; introduced in America and else-where.
Flowers from (June) July, August, September to October (November).
Grows on damp, sandy soil; grassy places; a weed of cultivation.