Molasses Grass

Natural range: Africa

Habitat: Weed

Recognition: Panicles rosy-reddish.  Plants sprawling.  Leaf sheaths pubescent, sticky, fragrant.  Leaf blades with papilla-based hairs.  Lower lemmas notched, often awned.

Melinis minutiflora differs from the similar and very abundant (invasive) Melinis repens by having sticky fragrant leaf sheaths, smaller spikelets (1.7-2.4 mm long vs. 2-5.7 mm), glabrous glumes, glabrous pedicels, and lower florets with no paleas.

Florida status: Introduced weed