Barnyardgrass

This is a segregate from Echinochloa crusgalli with a very dense, purple inflorescence and long awns.

This is an extreme variant from the Echinochloa crusgalli gene pool distinguished by the hard, glossy lower floret.

Annual. Culms forming small dense tufts, 1–2 m tall. Leaf sheaths glabrous to tuberculate-hairy; leaf blades broadly linear, 10–40 × 1–2 cm, glabrous, margins thickened and scabrous. Inflorescence slightly nodding, spikelets dense, 10–25 × 1.5–4 cm, axis scabrous and bearing long tubercle-based setae. Spikelets purplish, ovate-elliptic, 2.5–4 mm; lower glume 1/3–2/5 as long as spikelet, acuminate; upper glume equaling spikelet, 5-veined, with a stout 0.1–0.2 mm mucro; lower lemma herbaceous, loosely hispid along veins, awn 3–5 cm; upper lemma coriaceous. Fl. and fr. summer–autumn.

Culms erect or slightly decumbent at base, 50–120 cm tall. Leaf sheaths smooth and glabrous; leaf blades stiffly erect, linear, flat, 10–30 × 0.6–1.2 cm, glabrous, margins thickened, apex acuminate. Inflorescence narrow, 8–15 × 1–2(–3) cm; racemes 1–4 cm, simple. Spikelets light green, 3.5–5 mm, awnless or awned; glumes 5-veined; lower glume 1/3–1/2 as long as spikelet, acute; upper glume equal to spikelet, inconspicuously scabrous to shortly hispid along veins, cuspidate to awn-tipped; both lemmas coriaceous, hard and shining, especially down the center, the lower cuspidate to awned. Fl. and fr. summer–autumn. 2n = 54.

Afghanistan to Assam (Khasia).

900-1200 m

Streams, fields, roadsides. Anhui, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Nei Mongol, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Russia (Far East)].

Damp places, streams. Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Bhutan, NE India, Japan, Korea, Nepal; Africa].

Echinochloa crusgalli (Linnaeus) P. Beauvois subsp. caudata (Roshevitz) Tzvelev; E. crusgalli var. caudata (Roshevitz) Kitagawa.

Echinochloa crusgalli (Linnaeus) P. Beauvois var. formo-sensis Ohwi; E. glabrescens var. barbata Kossenko; E. glabres-cens var. glabra Kossenko; E. glabrescens var. pilosa Kossenko; E. micans Kossenko; E. pachychloa Kossenko.