Echinochloa muricata
Echinochloa oplismenoides
American barnyard-grass, awn barnyard grass, rough barnyard grass
Chihuahuan barnyard grass, Chihuahuan cockspur
80-160 cm, erect or spreading, sometimes rooting at the lowest nodes, often developing short axillary flowering shoots at most upper nodes when mature;
lower nodes glabrous or puberulent;
upper nodes glabrous.
to 100 cm, erect, succulent, glabrous, branching from the lower nodes.
glabrous;
ligules absent;
blades 1-27 cm long, 0.8-30 mm wide.
glabrous or hispid with papillose-based hairs;
ligules absent or the ligule region pubescent;
blades 10-35 cm long, 5-10 mm wide.
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.
15-30 cm, narrow;
primary branches appressed to ascending, with papillose-based hairs at the base of the spikelets.
2.5-5 mm, disarticulating at maturity, usually purple or streaked with purple, usually hispid, hairs papillose-based.
4-5 mm, disarticulating at maturity.
with hairs over the veins, glabrous, scabrous, or hispid between the veins;
upper glumes about equal to the spikelets, muticous or awned, awns to 1 mm;
lower florets sterile;
lower lemmas unawned or awned, awns 8-16(50) mm;
lower paleas absent or hyaline and subequal to the lemmas;
upper lemmas 4-4.5 mm long, 1.7-1.9 mm wide, elliptic;
anthers 0.5-0.7 mm, purple.
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;
anthers 0.4-1.1 mm.
1.2-2.5 mm, broadly obovoid or spheroid, yellowish;
embryos 1.4-2 mm, 80-91% as long as the caryopses.
2.7-2.9 mm long, 1.7-1.8 mm wide, elliptic in outline, mucronate;
embryos about 75% as long as the caryopses;
hila obovate.
= 36.
= unknown.
Echinochloa muricata
Echinochloa oplismenoides
Echinochloa muricata is native to North America, growing from southern Canada to northern Mexico in moist, often disturbed sites (but not rice fields). It resembles E. crus-galli in gross morphology and ecology, but differs consistently by the characters used in the key. The two varieties tend to be distinct, but there is some overlap in both morphology and geography.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Echinochloa oplismenoides was first found in the United States, in southern Arizona, in 1993 (Fishbein 1995). It was previously known only from Mexico, with a range that extends from northwestern Mexico to Guatemala. The southern Arizonan plants were found near a cattle tank in wet grasslands. Fishbein stated that it was impossible to tell whether they represented a previously overlooked native species or an introduction.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Spikelets 2.5-3.8 mm long; lower lemmas unawned or awned, the awns to 10 mm long | var. microstachya |
1. Spikelets 3.5-5 mm long; lower lemmas usually awned, the awns 6-16 mm long | var. muricata |
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