''Digitaria californica'' is a species of

grass Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family (biology), family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and spe ...

known by the common name Arizona cottontop. It is native to the Americas, where it can be found in the southwestern United States, Mexico, Central America, and South America.''Digitaria californica''.
Grass Manual Treatment. This perennial grass forms a clump of stems reaching up to a meter in height. The branching root system can reach one meter deep. There are no

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome ( ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and Shoot (botany), shoots from its Node (botany), nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from ...

s or

stolon In biology, a stolon ( from Latin ''wikt:stolo, stolō'', genitive ''stolōnis'' – "branch"), also known as a runner, is a horizontal connection between parts of an organism. It may be part of the organism, or of its skeleton. Typically, animal ...

s. The leaf sheaths around the stems can be very hairy to woolly. The leaves are usually short and narrow. The

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

is a dense, narrow

panicle In botany, a panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a p ...

containing pairs of woolly-haired spikelets.Walsh, Roberta A. 1993
''Digitaria californica''. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory This plant grows in a number of habitat types, including desert scrub and shrublands, shrubsteppe, and savanna. In the desert it sometimes grows beneath mesquites where it thrives in the local nutrients. It tolerates varying precipitation amounts and survives easily in drought conditions, becoming dormant at times, then growing quickly when rain returns. Much of its growth occurs in the summer, after the spring and summer rain cycles. This species is a preferred grass for livestock such as cattle. It tolerates high

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to free range (roam around) and consume wild vegetations in order to feed conversion ratio, convert the otherwise indigestible (by human diges ...

activity, but not

overgrazing Overgrazing occurs when plants are exposed to intensive grazing for extended periods of time, or without sufficient recovery periods. It can be caused by either livestock in poorly managed agricultural applications, game reserves, or nature ...

References

External links

USDA Plants Profile for ''Digitaria californica'' (Arizona cottontop)Calflora Database: ''Digitaria californica'' (Arizona cottontop)Dallisgrass Vs Crabgrass - DifferencesThe Nature ConservancyCalPhotos Photo Gallery
{{Authority control californica Bunchgrasses of North America Bunchgrasses of South America Grasses of Mexico Grasses of the United States Native grasses of California Flora of the California desert regions Flora of the Sonoran Deserts Natural history of the Mojave Desert North American desert flora Warm-season grasses of North America

References

Further reading

External links