Echinochloa muricata
Echinochloa walteri
American barnyard-grass, awn barnyard grass, rough barnyard grass
coast barnyard grass, coast cockspur, coast cockspur grass, echinochloa de Walter, Walter's barnyard 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.
(30) 50-200+ cm tall, to 2.5 cm thick;
nodes pilose or villous, upper nodes usually with sparser and shorter pubescence, occasionally glabrous.
glabrous;
ligules absent;
blades 1-27 cm long, 0.8-30 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.
8.5-35 cm, erect to slightly drooping, nodes hispid, hairs 3.5-5 mm, papillose-based, sometimes sparsely so, internodes usually glabrous, sometimes hispid, hairs papillose-based;
primary branches 1-10 cm, loosely erect, not concealed by the spikelets, nodes usually hispid, hairs papillose-based, sometimes glabrous, internodes scabrous, sometimes also sparsely hispid, hairs papillose-based;
secondary branches present on the longer primary branches.
2.5-5 mm, disarticulating at maturity, usually purple or streaked with purple, usually hispid, hairs papillose-based.
3-5 mm, disarticulating at maturity, scabrous to variously muricate and hairy, hairs usually not papillose-based, margins sometimes with a few papillose-based hairs.
usually more than 1/2 as long as the spikelets, abruptly narrowing to a fine, 0.5 mm point;
lower florets sterile;
lower lemmas usually awned, awns 8-25(60) mm;
lower paleas subequal to the lower lemmas;
upper lemmas 3-5 mm long, about 1.5 mm wide, not or scarcely exceeding the upper glumes, narrowly ovate to elliptical, coriaceous portion subacute, tips acuminate, membranous, without a line of hairs at the base of the tip;
anthers 0.6-1(1.2) mm.
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.
1.2-1.8 mm, brownish;
embryos 52-77% as long as the caryopses.
sheaths usually hispid, hairs papillose-based, sometimes just papillose;
upper sheaths hispid or glabrous;
ligules absent;
blades to 55 cm long, 10-35(60) mm wide, scabrous.
= 36.
= 36.
Echinochloa muricata
Echinochloa walteri
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 walteri grows in wet places, often in shallow water and brackish marshes. It is a native species that extends through Mexico to Guatamala. It is found in both disturbed and undisturbed sites although not in rice fields. Occasional specimens of E. walteri with glabrous lower sheaths and short awns can be distinguished from E. crus-pavonis by their less dense panicles.
(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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