Names
Scientific Name: Digitaria californica
Synonym: Trichachne californica
Common Names: Arizona cottontop, California crabgrass, zacate punta blanca
Characteristics
Duration: Perennial
Growth Habit: Grass
Arizona Native Status: Native
Habitat: Desert shrub, mesas and rocky hills, 1,000 to 6,000 feet
Flower Color: White
Flowering Season: Spring through fall
Height: 1 to 3 feet
Description:This is a warm-season bunchgrass with a knotty base and slender stems from 12 to 40 inches long and leaves 3 to 10 inches. It produces white to purplish, cottony seedheads.
Special Characteristics
Some stems of cottontop remain green through the winter, making it an important source of forage for animals. This grass needs at least 11 inches of annual rain to become established, but then becomes very drought hardy. Cottontop requires partial shade and will go to seed repeatedly when water is available. It is a long-lived grass.
Classification
Order: Poales
Family: Poaceae
SOURCES:
University of Austin, Lady Bird Johnson wildflower center
wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=DICA8
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 (Producer). Available: www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/ [2013, November 5].
Kearney, T. H. and R. H. Peebles. 1960. Arizona Flora. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Arizona Sonora Desert Museum Digital Library. www.desertmuseumdigitallibary.org/public/detail.php?id=ASDM08630
