Echinochloa colona
Echinochloa
awnless barnyard grass, jungle rice, jungle ricegrass, or jungle-rice, small barnyard grass, watergrass
barnyard-grass, cockspur grass
10-70 cm;
lower nodes glabrous or hispid, hairs appressed;
upper nodes glabrous.
10-460 cm, prostrate, decumbent or erect, distal portions sometimes floating, sometimes rooting at the lower nodes;
nodes usually glabrous;
internodes hollow or solid.
glabrous;
ligules absent, ligule region frequently brown-purple;
blades 8-22 cm long, 3-6(10) mm wide, mostly glabrous, sometimes hispid, hairs papillose-based on or near the margins.
open, compressed;
auricles absent;
ligules usually absent but, if present, of hairs;
blades linear to linear-lanceolate, usually more than 10 times longer than wide, flat, with a prominent midrib.
2-12 cm, erect, rachises glabrous or sparsely hispid;
primary branches 5-10, 0.7-2(4) cm, erect to ascending, spikelike, somewhat distant, without secondary branches, axes glabrous or sparsely hispid, hairs 1.5-2.5 mm, papillose-based.
terminal, panicles of simple or compound spikelike branches attached to elongate rachises, axes not terminating in a bristle, spikelets subsessile, densely packed on the angular branches;
disarticulation below the glumes (cultivated taxa not or tardily disarticulating).
2-3 mm, disarticulating at maturity, pubescent to hispid, hairs usually not papillose-based, tips acute to cuspidate.
plano-convex, with 2(3) florets;
lower florets sterile or staminate;
upper florets bisexual, dorsally compressed.
membranous;
lower glumes usually 1/4 - 2/5 as long as the spikelets (varying to more than 1/2 as long), unawned to minutely awn-tipped;
upper glumes unawned or shortly awned;
lower lemmas similar to the upper glumes in length and texture, unawned or awned, awns to 60 mm;
lower paleas vestigial to well-developed;
upper lemmas coriaceous, dorsally rounded, mostly smooth, apices short or elongate, firm or membranous, unawned;
upper paleas free from the lemmas at the apices;
lodicules absent or minute;
anthers 3.
about 1/2 as long as the spikelets;
upper glumes about as long as the spikelets;
lower florets usually sterile, occasionally staminate;
lower lemmas unawned, similar to the upper glumes;
lower paleas subequal to the lemmas;
upper lemmas 2.6-2.9 mm, not or scarcely exceeding the upper glumes, elliptic, coriaceous portion rounded distally, passing abruptly into a sharply differentiated, membranous, soon-withering tip;
anthers 0.7-0.8 mm.
1.2-1.6 mm, whitish;
embryos 63-83% as long as the caryopses.
ellipsoid, broadly ovoid or spheroid;
embryos usually 0.7-0.9 times as long as the caryopses.
= 9.
= 54.
Echinochloa colona
Echinochloa
Echinochloa colona is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions. It is adventive and weedy in North America, growing in low-lying, damp to wet, disturbed areas, including rice fields. The unbranched, rather widely-spaced panicle branches make this one of the easier species of Echinochloa to recognize.
Hitchcock (1913) considered that 'colonum' was a non-declining contraction, but dictionaries of Linnaeus' time treated it as a declining adjective. Because Linnaeus was the first to name the species (as "Panicum colonum"), it seems best to follow the practice considered correct in his day; hence "E. colona".
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Echinochloa is a tropical to warm-temperate genus of 40-50 species that are usually associated with wet or damp places. Many of the species are difficult to distinguish because they tend to intergrade. Some of the characters traditionally used for distinguishing taxa, e.g., awn length, are affected by the amount of moisture available; others reflect selection by cultivation, e.g., non-disarticulation in grain taxa, mimicry of rice as weeds of rice fields. There are 13 species in the Flora region: five native and one possibly native, four established, two grown as commercial crops, and one in research.
In North America, the most abundant species appears to be the introduced, weedy Echinochloa crus-galli, which closely resembles the native E. muricata. The confusion between the two species has caused them to be treated as the same species. This confusion is probably reflected in the mapping of both E. crus-galli and E. muricata. Echinochloa frumentacea and E. esculenta are grown for grain in India and in China and Japan, respectively, but not in North America. Echinochloa oryzoides and E. oryzicola are weeds whose success and distribution reflects their adaptation to the periodic inundations of commercial rice fields.
Cytogenetic data suggest that Echinochloa frumentacea and E. esculenta are domesticated derivatives of E. crus-galli and E. colona, respectively (Yabuno 1962) and that E. oryzoides is very closely related to E. crus-galli (Yabuno 1984). Yabuno (1966) suggested that E. crus-galli is an allohexaploid produced by natural hybridization between the tetraploid E. oryzicola with a not-yet-discovered diploid species of Echinochloa and subsequent chromosome doubling. Studies using seed protein electrophoresis and isozyme analyses (Kim et al. 1989; Gonzalez-Andres et al. 1996; Asins et al. 1999), and molecular studies involving RAPD markers and DNA sequences (Hilu 1994; Roy et al. 2000) or PCR-RFLP techniques (Yasuda et al. 2001), will help in clarifying the phylogenetic problems in Echinochloa, providing that proper attention is paid to the morphological characterization of the plant materials used and that voucher specimens are preserved.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Ligules of stiff hairs present on the lower leaves; lower florets staminate; plants perennial. | → 2 |
2. Plants without scaly rhizomes, sometimes rooting at the lower nodes; lower lemmas usually awned, sometimes merely apiculate; known outside of experimental plantings | E. polystachya |
2. Plants with short, scaly rhizomes; lower lemmas unawned, sometimes long-cuspidate; in the Flora region, known only from experimental plantings | E. pyramidalis |
1. Ligules almost always absent from all leaves, the ligule region sometimes pubescent; lower florets sterile or staminate; plants usually annual, sometimes short-lived perennials. | → 3 |
3. Lower lemmas usually unawned; spikelets, particularly those near the base of the panicles, not disarticulating at maturity; upper lemmas wider and longer than the upper glumes at maturity and, hence, exposed at maturity. | → 4 |
4. Spikelets always green and pale at maturity, their apices usually obtuse, varying to acute; rachis nodes not or only sparsely hispid with papillose-based hairs; caryopses whitish | E. frumentacea |
4. Spikelets purplish to blackish-brown at maturity, their apices obuse to shortly acute; rachis nodes densely hispid with papillose-based hairs; caryopses brownish | E. esculenta |
3. Lower lemmas often awned; spikelets disarticulating at maturity; upper lemmas not or scarcely exceeding the upper glumes in length and width at maturity. | → 5 |
5. Plants essentially obligate weeds of rice, growing in the fields; culms erect, densely tufted; spikelets 3.7-7 mm long; plants resembling rice in their vegetative growth. | → 6 |
6. Panicles horizontal or drooping at maturity; spikelets broadly ovate to ovate; lower lemmas usually awned; caryopses 1.9-3 mm long, the embryos 70-85% as long as the caryopses | E. oryzoides |
6. Panicles erect to slightly drooping; spikelets ovate-elliptical; lower lemmas awned or not; caryopses 1.7-2.6 mm long, the embryos 89-98% as long as the caryopses | E. oryzicola |
5. Plants not obligate weeds of rice, found in summer crops and wet places, and often in rice fields; culms sprawling, decumbent or erect; spikelets 2-5 mm long; plants occasionally resembling rice vegetatively but, if so, the spikelets less than 3 mm long. | → 7 |
7. Lower florets staminate; anthers of the upper florets 1.2-1.7 mm long | E. paludigena |
7. Lower florets sterile; anthers of the upper florets 0.5-1.2 mm long. | → 8 |
8. Panicle branches 0.7-2(4) cm long, without secondary branches; spikelets 2-3 mm long, unawned | E. colona |
8. Panicle branches 1-14 cm long, usually rebranched, the secondary branches often short and inconspicuous; spikelets 2.5-5 mm long, awned or unawned. | → 9 |
9. Upper lemmas broadly ovate to elliptical, if elliptical, each with a line of minute (need 25x magnification) hairs across the base of the early-withering tips. | → 10 |
10. Upper lemmas with rounded or broadly acute coriaceous apices that pass abruptly into a membranous tip, a line of minute hairs present at the base of the tip | E. crus-galli |
10. Upper lemmas with acute or acuminate coriaceous apices that extend into the membranous tip, without hairs at the base of the tip | E. muricata |
9. Upper lemmas narrowly ovate to elliptical, never with a line of minute hairs across the base of the early-withering, membranous tips. | → 11 |
11. Spikelets 2.5-3.4 mm long; lower lemmas unawned or with awns 3-10(15) mm long, curved | E. crus-pavonis |
11. Spikelets 3-5 mm long; lower lemmas usually with awns 8-25 mm long, typically straight. | → 12 |
12. Blades 10-35(60) mm wide; sheaths usually hispid and the margins ciliate with prominent papillose-based hairs, sometimes the sheaths only papillose; lower lemmas awned, the awns 8-25(60) mm long; common in the eastern portion of the Flora region | E. walteri |
12. Blades 5-10 mm wide; sheaths glabrous or with papillose-based hairs; lower lemmas unawned or awned, the awns 8-16(50) mm long; in the Flora region, known only from southern Arizona | E. oplismenoides |
- Local floras:
CA, 
OR, 
WA - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos,
Flora NW, 
Go Botany, 
IL Wildflowers, 
KS Wildflowers, 
LA Plants, 
MD Biodiversity, 
MO Plants, 
PNW Herbaria 
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist (observations)
USDA Plants Database- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
- Google Image Search
- Local floras: CA, OR, WA
- Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos, Flora NW, IL Wildflowers, KS Wildflowers, LA Plants, MD Biodiversity,
MI Flora, 
MN Wildflowers, MO Plants, PNW Herbaria - WildflowerSearch
- iNaturalist (observations)
- USDA Plants Database
- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
- Google Image Search
