Status: Native to Europe and temperate Asia. Naturalised throughout Australia.
Small annual grass to from 2-30 cm tall with flat, smooth, often pale green leaves to 12 cm long and 5 mm wide with a boat-shaped tip. Flower-heads are open and spreading panicles to 10 cm long and 6 cm wide. Each spikelet contains 3-6 green or purplish florets which are hairy in their lower halves.
A very common grass across most of Victoria, although uncommon in the Mallee. A common weed of gardens, lawns, pastures and disturbed areas, wherever bare ground and moisture are available. Essentially a fresh-water species, it may appear as an ephemeral annual on saline land over the colder and wetter months but usually disappears once soils dry out and conditions become more saline.
SIMILAR SPECIES
Kentucky Blue-grass but generally smaller in growth.
SCENARIOS AND SOLUTIONS:
- In lawns and garden beds: An application of Barricade or Spartan in March or April before the weed appears.
Reference: https://vro.agriculture.vic.gov.au/dpi/vro/vrosite.nsf/pages/sip_annual_poa
