Annual 3-12 dm, the culms glabrous, or puberulent below the nodes; lower sheaths softly retrorse-pilose, the upper glabrous or nearly so; blades flat, 1-7 mm wide, pilose; ligule 0.5-2.5 mm; panicle relatively short, 4-15(-20) cm, broad and open, the branches rather stiffly spreading or ascending, not flexuous or drooping, the pedicels mostly longer than the spikelets; spikelets 10-18(-30) mm, 4-10(12)-fld, slightly compressed; glumes scabrous or puberulent, the first 5-6(-7) mm, 3- or 5-veined, the second 6-7(-8.5) mm, 5-9-veined; lemmas 7-10 mm, 1.7-2.5 mm wide in side view, the veins faint, the terminal teeth not over 2 mm; awns 5-12 mm, straight or nearly so; palea less than 1.5 mm shorter than the lemma; anthers 0.7-1.7 mm; rachilla-joints 1.5-2 mm; 2n=14, 28, 56. Native of Europe, commonly intr. in disturbed sites in our range, w. to the Pacific.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

From Flora of Indiana (1940) by Charles C. Deam

This species is now frequent to common throughout the state and is our most common chess. It is found almost everywhere in cultivated and waste grounds and along roadsides and railroads.

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Indiana Coefficient of Conservatism: C = null, non-native

Wetland Indicator Status: n/a