Southern Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Echinochloa colona (L.) Link
- Family: Grass (Poaceae)
- Flowering: July-October
- Field Marks: This annual grass has its spikelets crowded into 4 rows on one side of the axis of the spike.
- Habitat: Disturbed low ground, wet ditches, old fields, sand and gravel bars.
- Habit: Annual grass with fibrous roots.
- Stems: Several, upright or prostrate, sometimes creeping at first and rooting at the nodes, smooth, up to 2 1/2 feet tall.
- Leaves: Elongated and very narrow, smooth or sometimes sparsely hairy on the upper surface, smooth on the lower surface, up to 6 inches long, up to 1/4 inch wide.
- Flowers: Borne in spikelets, the spikelets crowded into 4 rows on one side of the axis of the spike; each spike up to 1 1/2 inches long, with several spikes forming a narrow panicle.
- Spikelets: 1-flowered, ovoid, up to 1/8 inch long, without an awn, green or sometimes purplish.
- Sepals: 0.
- Petals: 0.
- Stamens: 3.
- Pistils: Ovary superior.
- Grains: Ellipsoid, whitish.
- Notes: This species is native in the old world tropics, but occurs adventively in moist warm areas in temperate regions.
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