06/14/2026
🌱Japanese stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum)
The annual grass typically grows 1–3 feet tall and often has multiple stems, branching near the base.
Leaves are pale green, 2–4 inches long, 0.5 inches wide, and grow alternately and well‑spaced along a delicate stem.
Leaf blades have pointed tips and bases, smooth edges, and often a silvery midrib.
This plant has a thin, weak root system. Rootlets (“stilt” roots) descend from nodes along lower sections of the stem into the soil.
In the fall or during droughts, the plant may turn a purple‑brown color, transitioning to a bright tan to orange thatch in some parts of its range.
Preferred habitat includes floodplain forests and streambanks, forest edges, road and trail edges, damp fields, ditches and lawns, and other shady areas prone to flooding.
This species can form dense infestations and crowd out native vegetation; however, it can be easily hand‑pulled due to the weak root system.
Repeated mowing or weed‑eating before seed set may be an effective control against this annual but the area will need to be monitored and treated for several years to eliminate seedbank reserves.
Learn more on how to recognize this plant and compare it to look‑alikes in the Field Guide to the Identification of Japanese Stiltgrass.
https://www.aces.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/ANR-1457_FieldGuidetoStiltgrass_030119L.pdf
🌿 Join the 2026 Year of Alabama Invasive Plants Project to raise awareness, improve identification skills, and take action against invasive species. Visit ACES Year of Invasive Plants Project to learn more and take the pledge.
