Plants annual. Culms 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. Sheaths glabrous; ligules absent;
blades 1-27 cm long, 0.8-30 mm wide. Panicles 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. Spikelets 2.5-5 mm, disarticulating at maturity,
usually purple or streaked with purple, usually hispid, hairs papillose-based.
Upper glumes 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. Caryopses 1.2-2.5 mm, broadly obovoid or spheroid, yellowish;
embryos 1.4-2 mm, 80-91% as long as the caryopses. 2n = 36.
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.
Annual herb 0.8 - 1.5 m tall Leaves: alternate, two-ranked. Sheaths open, compressed. Ligules absent. Blades 1 - 27 cm long, 0.5 mm - 3 cm wide, usually over ten times longer than wide, linear to lance-shaped, flat, parallel-veined, with a prominent midrib. Inflorescence: a terminal arrangement of spikelets (panicle), to 35 cm long, with an elongate and sometimes hairy axis. Primary branches spreading, distant, 2 - 8 cm long, often bearing secondary branches. Fruit: a caryopsis, indehiscent, enclosed within the persistent lemma and palea, yellowish, 1 - 2.5 mm long, broadly egg-shaped to spherical. Culm: upright or spreading, 0.8 - 1.5 m long, round in cross-section, sometimes rooting at the lower nodes, often developing short axillary shoots at the upper nodes when mature. Lower nodes sometimes minutely hairy. Spikelets: densely crowded on angular branches, purple or purple-streaked, 2.5 - 4 mm long, flat on one side and convex on the other (plano-convex), with bumpy-based hairs. Florets: two per spikelet. Lower florets sterile. Upper florets bisexual, compressed dorsally. Anthers three, to 0.7 mm long. Stigmas red. Glumes:: Lower glumes 1 - 1.5 mm long, membranous. Upper glumes about equal to spikelets, 2.5 - 3.5 mm long, membranous. Lemmas:: Lower lemmas similar to upper glumes in texture and size, sometimes bristle-tipped (bristle to 1.5 mm long). Upper lemmas broadly reverse egg-shaped or circular with a leather-like, narrowing apex (tip membranous), rounded dorsally, leather-like. Paleas:: Lower paleas well-developed.
Similar species: No information at this time.
Flowering: August to October
Habitat and ecology: Disturbed areas, often in moist soil.
Occurence in the Chicago region: native
Etymology: Echinochloa comes from the Greek words echinos, meaning hedgehog, and chloa, meaning grass, referring to the bristly spikelets of some species. Muricata means roughened. Microstachya means small-spiked.
Spikelets less than 3.5 mm; sterile lemma awnless or with an awn to 6(-10) mm. (E. microstachya; E. wiegandii, with few or no pustulate-based hairs on the spikelets)
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.