Description:
This plant is listed as a noxious weed by the U. S. federal government or a state, and may be known by one or more common names in different places.
Habitat: Open areas, meadows, pastures, ditches.
Habit: Annual grass with fibrous roots.
Stems: Upright or ascending, slender, somewhat rough to the touch, up to 2 feet tall.
Leaves: Elongated, flat, rough to the touch, 1/10-1/6 inch wide.
Flowers: Borne in spikelets, with many spikelets crowded into slender, spike-like panicles, the panicles up to 4 inches long, up to 1/4 inch thick.
Spikelets: 1-flowered, flat, 1/4-1/3 inch long, the glumes pointed, hairy only on the keel below the middle, the lemma longer than the glumes, with a slightly bent awn inserted near the base of the lemma and about twice as long as the glumes.

• Mechanical: The most effective practive for reducing infestations is plowing, which buries the seed and reduces the number of seedlings that can germinate.
• Biological: Unknown.
• Herbicide: Grain growers in Europe find that an annual control program using grass herbicides is necessary to prevent blackgrass from increasing. Control in the early stages of growth is improtant because blackgrass fcompetes with the grain during th period of early spring growth - and it can seriouslyreduce yield. Refer to the State Noxious Weed Control Board site

For More Information:
Detailed information about Blackgrass is available on the Oregon State University Website.