Leersia virginica

Leersia virginica, commonly known as whitegrass, white cutgrass, or Virginian cutgrass, is a perennial grass that is native to eastern North America, typically found in partially shaded low-lying wet areas.

Leersia virginica
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Clade: Commelinids
Order: Poales
Family: Poaceae
Genus: Leersia
Species:
L. virginica
Binomial name
Leersia virginica

Its blooming period occurs from mid-summer to early fall. Whitegrass can be distinguished from rice cutgrass (Leersia oryzoides) by its smoother leaf sheaths, flowering heads with solitary lower branches in the flowering heads, smaller and more strongly overlapping spikelets, and short rhizomes with overlapping scales. Rice cutgrass, in contrast, has leaf sheaths round enough to cause painful scratches, flowering heads with two or more branches at the lowermost nodes, larger and barely overlapping spikelets, and more elongated rhizomes with the scales usually not overlapping.[1]

References
  1. Iowa State University article on Leersia virginica

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