Echinochloa colona
Echinochloa crus-galli
awnless barnyard grass, jungle rice, jungle ricegrass, or jungle-rice, small barnyard grass, watergrass
awn barnyard grass, barnyard grass, common barnyard grass, echinochloa pied-de-coq, large barnyard-grass, or large barnyard grass
10-70 cm;
lower nodes glabrous or hispid, hairs appressed;
upper nodes glabrous.
30-200 cm, spreading, decumbent or stiffly erect;
nodes usually glabrous or the lower nodes puberulent.
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.
glabrous;
ligules absent, ligule region sometimes pubescent;
blades to 65 cm long, 5-30 mm wide, usually glabrous, occasionally sparsely hirsute.
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.
5-25 cm, with few-many papillose-based hairs at or below the nodes of the primary axes, hairs sometimes longer than the spikelets;
primary branches 1.5-10 cm, erect to spreading, longer branches with short, inconspicuous secondary branches, axes scabrous, sometimes also sparsely hispid, hairs to 5 mm, papillose-based.
2-3 mm, disarticulating at maturity, pubescent to hispid, hairs usually not papillose-based, tips acute to cuspidate.
2.5-4 mm long, 1.1-2.3 mm wide, disarticulating at maturity.
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.
about as long as the spikelets;
lower florets sterile;
lower lemmas unawned to awned, sometimes varying within a branch, awns to 50 mm;
lower paleas subequal to the lemmas;
upper lemmas broadly ovate to elliptical, coriaceous portion rounded distally, passing abruptly into an early-withering, acuminate, membranous tip that is further demarcated from the coriaceous portion by a line of minute hairs (use 25x magnification);
anthers 0.5-1 mm.
1.2-1.6 mm, whitish;
embryos 63-83% as long as the caryopses.
1.3-2.2 mm long, 1-1.8 mm wide, ovoid or oblong, brownish;
embryos 59-86% as long as the caryopses.
= 54.
= 54.
Echinochloa colona
Echinochloa crus-galli
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 crus-galli is a Eurasian species that is now widely established in the Flora region, where it grows in moist, disturbed sites, including rice fields. Some North American taxonomists have interpreted E. crus-galli much more widely; others treat it as here, but recognize several infraspecific taxa based on such characters as trichome length and abundance, and awn length. There are several ecological and physiological ecotypes within the species, but the correlation between these and the species' morphological variation has not been established, so no infraspecific taxa are recognized here.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
- 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:
BC, CA, OR, WA - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos, Flora NW, PNW Herbaria
- WildflowerSearch
- iNaturalist (observations)
- USDA Plants Database
- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
- Google Image Search
