This is probably the ugliest of grasses. It is similar to crabgrass but has flat stems and a more strictly rosette habit, as opposed to the stoloniferous sprawling habit of true crabgrass. It can often be easily recognized by the open gnarly center of the rosette where the culms can be seen to be flat and silvery at the base. The culms either spread out flat, especially when in sidewalk cracks, or up in a conical fashion, especially when in dirt competing with other weeds. It commonly grows out of sidewalk and pavement cracks and is one of the most common, if not the most common, sidewalk grasses in the city.