Nepalese Browntop

Plant: Sprawling annual grass, 0.5-3 ft (15-100 cm) tall or long, with flat leaf blades having off-center veins, branching near the base and rooting at nodes to form dense and extensive infestations.

Stem: Ascending to reclining, slender and wiry, up to 4 ft (1.2 m) long with hairless nodes and internodes, green to purple to brown, covered by overlapping sheaths.

Leaves: Alternate (none basal), lanceolate to oblanceolate, flat blades to 4 in (10 cm) long and 0.07-0.6 in (2-15 mm) wide, projecting out from stem, midvein whitish off-centered, sparsely hairy on both surfaces and along margins, throat collar hairy, ligule membranous with a hairy margin.

Flowers: Aug-Oct. Terminal, thin, spike-like racemes, 1-3 in (2-7 cm) long, solitary or with 1-3 laterals, on an elongated wiry stem, spikelets paired, with one stemmed and the inner one sessile.

Seeds: Sep-Dec. Seed head thin, grain ellipsoid, 0.1 in (2.8-3 mm) long, with seed stalks remaining during winter.

Ecology: Very shade tolerant. Ideal habitat is alluvial flood plains and streamsides, mostly colonizing flood-scoured banks. Other typical habitat includes forest edges,