Echinochloa muricata
Echinochloa paludigena
American barnyard-grass, awn barnyard grass, rough barnyard grass
Florida barnyard grass, Florida cockspur grass
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 150 cm, erect.
glabrous;
ligules absent;
blades 1-27 cm long, 0.8-30 mm wide.
glabrous;
ligules absent;
blades 15-60 cm long, 8-20 mm wide, scabrous adaxially.
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.
8-40 cm, erect to slightly drooping, rachis nodes hispid, hairs papillose-based;
primary branches 2-19 cm, erect to spreading, often widely spaced, longer branches with secondary branching.
2.5-5 mm, disarticulating at maturity, usually purple or streaked with purple, usually hispid, hairs papillose-based.
3.3-4.5 mm long, 2.4-2.6 mm wide, disarticulating at maturity, greenish or purplish, scabrous and hispid, hairs to 1 mm, often papillose-based.
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.
about as long as the spikelets;
lower florets staminate;
lower lemmas usually awned, awns 1-15 mm, purplish;
lower paleas well-developed;
upper lemmas broadly ovate, narrowing abruptly to the acute or acuminate apices;
anthers of upper florets 1.2-1.7 mm.
1.2-2.5 mm, broadly obovoid or spheroid, yellowish;
embryos 1.4-2 mm, 80-91% as long as the caryopses.
1.5-1.8 mm.
= 36.
= unknown.
Echinochloa muricata
Echinochloa paludigena
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 paludigena is native to swamps, river-banks, and other wet habitats. Reports from Texas and Louisiana appear to be based on misidentifications; Wunderlin (1988) considers E. paludigena as a Florida endemic.
(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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