Our neighbourhood jays and crows make our "volunteer garden" a fascinating study each year. This one appearred this year and we have no idea what the heck it is. Any takers?
Grasses are often difficult to identify without (at the least) a hand lens and a specimen in hand. That being said, I'm fairly confident this is Panicum miliaceum, commonly known as millet, proso millet, broomcorn millet, hog millet, panic millet and so on. Weedy plants tend to have multiple common names, for some reason. To back up my identification, here's a scan of an herbarium specimen from Arizona State University. More information (with extra links) on the USDA web site. My guess is that this volunteer is seed from a bird feeder, as millet is often used in bird feed (the little round yellow seeds that are "glued together" to make cute shapes).
