Of the 3 Echinochloa species in Minnesota, E. muricata is distinguished by the minute details of its fertile florets, specifically the sharply pointed tips on lemmas and paleas that have no clear separation from the shiny, hardened body. Hairs on the glumes and sterile lemmas usually have enlarged, pimple-like bases (papillose).

American barnyard grass is found in damp, sandy shores, fields and disturbed areas in all New England states. Archaeological evidence suggests that the plant was used prehistorically for thatching and matting and the seeds were possibly used for food. Anthropogenic (man-made or disturbed habitats), meadows and fields, shores of rivers or lakes.

Echinochloa is a tropical to warm-temperate genus of 40-50 species that are usually associated with wet or damp places. Many of the species are difficult to distinguish because they tend to intergrade.

Echinochloa esculenta is cultivated both for grain and forage, like E. frumentacea, and the two are most easily distinguished by the color of the seeding heads. Echinochloa esculenta is thought to be a cul-tivated derivative of E. crusgalli that arose in China, Japan, and Korea. 3. Echinochloa oryzoides (Arduino) Fritsch, Verh. Zool.-Bot. Ges.

Of the 3 Echinochloa species in Minnesota, E. walteri is distinguished by its awned upper glumes and hairy sheaths, the hairs with pimple-like bases (papillose); occasionally sheaths are simply covered with the pimply projections and hairs are lacking, giving something of a polka-dotted look in the right light. The length of the awns can be ...

Of the 3 Echinochloa species in Minnesota, E. crus-galli is distinguished by the minute details of its fertile florets, specifically the membranous tips on lemmas and paleas with the line of minute hairs separating the lemma tip from its shiny, hardened body.

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.

Echinochloa (Ligules absent in our species) 1. Awn usually > 10 mm long; spikelet hairs not papillose…4. 1. Awn usually < 10 mm long, or absent…2. 2. Lower floret usually staminate…E. paludigena (large grasses often > 1 m tall, having short awns) 2. Lower floret sterile…3. 3. Spikelets with no awn (or second glume or sterile lemma with ...

Description: This grass is a summer annual about 1½–3½' tall. An individual plant often branches at the base, sending up multiple culms that can sprawl or stand erect; each of these culms is unbranched. The culms are light green, terete, and glabrous.

Echinochloa walteri (Pursh) Heller N. coast barnyard grass. Panicum walteri Pursh • CT, MA, NH, RI. Shorelines, upper borders of saline and brackish marshes, low, wet areas.