Arthraxon hispidus (Thunb.) Makino

Small Carp Grass; Joint Head

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Small Carp Grass is an introduced herbaceous annual in the Grass family (Poaceae). It is native to East Asia, from Russia to India. In Alabama in can be found in the northern two-thirds of the state. Small Carp Grass grows around ponds and lakes, along streams and rivers, in wet roadside ditches, in swamps, and in low woods. It is an annual with creeping to semi-erect stems that root from the lower nodes. The stems are up to 1.5 feet in length, green to reddish purple in color, and glabrous. Leaves are alternate, ovate to lanceolate in outline, with cordate bases. The leaves are pubescent and scabrous along the margins. The leaf sheath is long pubescent with stiff, erect hairs. Flowers are produced in sessile spikelets arranged in terminal and axillary racemes or panicles. The rachis is jointed with joints shorter than the spikelets. The glumes are nearly equal, strongly keeled, and have pustular based hairs along the veins. The fruit is a grain. Small Carp Grass is listed as an invasive species in several Northeastern and mid-Atlantic states.—A. Diamond

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Not Native FACU+ (NWPL)

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