Single Record
Participant Info
- Species
- Sorghum halepense [Holcus halepensis] [Sorghum miliacum]
- Family
- Poaceae
- CommonName
- Johnson grass, Johnsongrass
- Presence
- yes
- Status
- exotic
- EarliestDate
- 2025
- LatestDate
- 2025
- Ecosystem
- foothill, ruderal, urban
- Geobotanical
- SSanjuans
- Counties
- Rio Grande
- Passes
- WildlifePreserves
- Other Localities
- Del Norte
- Comments
- Johnson grass had not been documented from the Watershed until it was recorded from a Del Norte street side, at the edge of a lawn next to a concrete side walk (Rio Grande Co, Sept 2025). Sorghum halepense, annual and warm-season, has been found in ruderal habitats around Colorado, as well as in many counties of New Mexico. This exotic has been found in every lower USA state except for Minnesota. It follows the Rio Grande drainage to the Gulf of Mexico. The specific name, "halepense," means "from Aleppo." Its common name, Johnson grass, alludes to Colonel William Johnson, who around 1840 introduced the species as a forage crop on his Alabama farm, unaware that under stress the species can be toxic to livestock.
- Annotation