Author
Vincent Chatelain
Best recognition factors
Caryopses
1.2-2.5 mm, broadly obovoid or spheroid, yellowish
rough barnyard grass; American barnyard grass; awned barnyard grass
Common Name(s)
80-160 cm, erect or spreading, sometimes rooting at the lowest nodes, often developing short axillary flowering shoots at most upper nodes when mature; glabrous.
Culms
Agriculture fields, sloughs, along rivers and streams, and around lakes and ponds.
Ecology
Clayton, W.D., Harman, K.T. and Williamson, H. (2006 onwards). GrassBase - The Online World Grass Flora. Species treatment: http://www.kew.org/data/grasses-db/www/imp03297.htm
USDA, NRCS. 2007. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 4 December 2007). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA. species profile: http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=ECMU2
Grass Manual on the Web; Utah State University, Intermountain Herbarium: http://herbarium.usu.edu/webmanual/default.htm
Interactive key to species: Utah State University, Intermountain Herbarium: http://utc.usu.edu/keys/Echinochloa/Echinochloa.html
Electronic links
Poaceae
Family
May to November.
Flowering period
1 per spikelet with many spikelets grouped to form spikes
Spikelets 2.5-5 mm, disarticulating at maturity, usually purple or streaked with purple, usually hispid, hairs papillose-based. Upper glumes about as long as the spikelets; lower florets sterile; lower lemmas unawned or awned, awns to 16 mm; lower paleas well-developed; upper lemmas broadly obovoid or orbicular, narrowing to an acute or acuminate coriaceous portion that extends into the membranous tip, boundary between the coriaceous and membranous portions not marked by minute hairs
Flowers
Native; reported for most states in the U. S., but more common in the eastern part of the country.
Geographic distribution
Annual, culms erect, smooth, branched or unbranched, up to 2 meters tall; lower nodes glabrous or puberulent; upper nodes glabrous. Sheaths glabrous; ligules absent; blades 1-27 cm long, 0.8-30 mm wide.
Habit and stem features
Panicles of primary culms 7-35 cm, rachises and branches glabrous or hispid, hairs to 3 mm, papillose-based; primary branches 2-8 cm, usually spreading and rather distant, often with secondary branches.
Inflorescence
lower paleas well-developed;
As Setaria: Setaria muricata P. Beauv., Ess. Agrostogr. 178 (51, 170). 1812.
Echinochloa muricata (P.Beauv.) Fernald. Rhodora 17: 106. 1915
Palea
Annuals to nearly 2 m tall; leaf blades up to 30 cm long and 30 mm wide; ligules absent; plants usually glabrous except in the inflorescence; panicles of spiklets 7-35 cm long; panicle branches 2--8 cm long; spikelets with sterile palea; upper lemmas with acute or acuminate coriaceous apices that extend into a membranous tip, without hairs at the base.
Place of Species Publication
Allen, C. M., D. A. Newman, and H. Winters. 2004. Grasses of Louisiana, 3rd edition. Allen's Native Ventures, LLC., Pitkin, LA.
Clayton, W.D., Harman, K.T. and Williamson, H. (2006 onwards). GrassBase - The Online World Grass Flora. http://www.kew.org/data/grasses-db.html. [accessed 04 December 2007; 15:30 GMT]
Michael, P. W . 2003. Echinochloa. In: Flora of North America North of Mexico. Barkworth, M. E., K. M. Capels, S. Long, and M. B. Piep, editors. Vol. 25, part 2. Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford. Also: Grass Manual on the Web: http://herbarium.usu.edu/webmanual/.
USDA, NRCS. 2007. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 18 April 2007). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.
Recognition factors
Echinochloa muricata (P. Beauv.) Fernald var. muricata
References
Spikelets 2.5-5 mm long, disarticulating at maturity, usually purple or streaked with purple, usually hispid, hairs papillose-based.
Glumes both present Lower 1-2.6 mm, unawned; Upper glumes about as long as the spikelets;
Lower florets sterile; lower lemmas unawned or awned, awns to 16 mm; lower paleas well-developed;
Terminal floret fertile; lemma broadly obovoid or orbicular, narrowing to an acute or acuminate coriaceous portion that extends into the membranous tip, boundary between the coriaceous and membranous portions not marked by minute hairs; anthers 0.4-1.1 mm.
Species name
Echinochloa muricata (Beauv.) Fern. var. ludoviciana Wieg.
Echinochloa pungens (Poir.) Rydb.
Echinochloa pungens (Poir.) Rydb. var. coarctata Fern. & Grisc.
Echinochloa pungens (Poir.) Rydb. var. ludoviciana (Wieg.) Fern. & Grisc.
Spikelets
FAC