Barnyardgrass Echinochloa crusgalli (L.) Beauv. [ECHCG]
General Description:
A summer annual with erect, thick clump-forming stems (1.5m tall). In
turf, plants grow prostrate to produce a mat-like rosette.
Seedling: The first leaf blade is linear and
opens parallel to the ground. Leaves are rolled in the bud, lack
auricles, and have no ligule. Blades are 7 to 14 cm long and 3 to 5 mm
wide.
Mature Plant: Leaves are similar to those
of seedling, and ligules are absent. Blades are about 10 to 20 cm by 5
to 20 mm, lack hairs, and are smooth to somewhat rough on both surfaces.
The midvein is distinct and keeled in the basal portions of the leaf.
The collar is whitish, broad, and smooth. Sheaths are open,
compressed, and smooth, but sometimes have a tuft of short hair at the base.
Culm is stout, tufted arising from a jointed base which trails along the
ground.
Flowers and Fruit: Flowering occurs from
July to September. The panicle is a coarsely branched green to
purplish. Spikelets contain one perfect floret, round, slightly
flattened, somewhat rigid, covered with stiff hairs on glandular bumps,
membraneceous tip set off from from the body by a line of minute hairs.
Glumes may be awned with the length of the awns varying among biotypes.
The seed is shiny, oval, and brownish with longitudinal ridges.
Distribution: Found throughout the United
States.
Crops Affected: Corn, Soybean
Animal Poisoning: None
Similar Species: Johnsongrass and fall
panicum have coarse-textured foliage and may resemble barnyardgrass in their
mature forms, but both johnsongrass and fall panicum have a distinct ligule.