Coast Cockspur Grass (Echinochloa walteri)

You will see two photographs of another member of the genus Echinochloa. The reason the photograph was taken was not to identify the plant, but to show what the unseasonably warm weather (the hottest March and April on record according to meteorologists) is doing to some plants. This plant is already producing an inflorescence with enough detail that a pretty good identification could be made. The second picture shows the inflorescence up close. The long awns projecting from each seed indicate this is probably Echinochloa walteri. So we have another close relative of barnyardgrass which can hybridize with barnyardgrass and might even key out that way. I suspect E. walteri because it was in Cameron parish where this species is pretty common. The awns alone are not enough to separate it from barnyardgrass because sometimes barnyardgrass has awns too and certainly hybrids of the two species will have everything from very short to very long awns. Later on a more typical plant may provide more definitive information. I found two common names for this grass; Coast Cockspur Grass and Walter’s Barnyardgrass.

walteri 2

Echinochloa walteri flowering prematurely

walteri 1

Echinochloa walteri spikelets

9/5/2019 9:12:36 PM
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