Scientific Name
Polypogon monspeliensis (L.) Desf. (Synonyms: Alopecurus monspeliensis)
Common Name(s)
Annual rabbitsfoot grass, rabbitfoot grass, beardgrass
Tribe / Family Name
Poeae
Flowering Period
May to August
Symbol
POMO5
Description
Annual rabbitsfoot grass is an introduced cool-season annual bunchgrass. Culms usually range from 5–65 cm in height. Its inflorescence is a dense, spike-like panicle 1–17 cm long, densely compacted with short branches, occasionally lobed, and tawny yellow when mature. Spikelets are 1-flowered; disarticulation below the glumes. Glumes are subequal, 1–2.7 mm long, narrowly elliptic, scabrous to hispidulous with largest prickles belonging to the lower half, and awned (awns up to 10 mm long from the rounded lobes and bifid tips). Lemmas are up to 1.5 mm long, ovate, smooth and shiny with small teeth at the tips, much shorter than the glumes, and awned (awns sometimes up to 4.5 mm long). Sheaths are open and smooth to scabrous. Auricles are absent. Ligules are 2.5–16 mm long, membranous, acute or obtuse, lacerate or erose, and puberulent abaxially. Blades are 1–20 cm long, up to 7 mm wide, usually flat, and glabrous to scaberulous.
General Info
Annual rabbitsfoot can be found in moist areas with saline or alkaline soils, highly mineralized hot springs, disturbed sites, meadows, marshes, irrigated pastures, ditches, beaver dams, newly developed streambanks, foothills, plains, and montane sites.
Similar Species
Annual rabbitsfoot grass is distinctive and not easily confused with other grasses.
Picture of growth habit.
Close-up picture of dense-spicate panicle inflorescence.
Close-up picture of spikelet.
Close-up picture of membranous ligule.
Illustration of annual rabbitsfoot grass. USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. <i>An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions. 3 vols</i>. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. Vol. 1: 201.