Scientific Name
Echinochloa crus-galli (L.) P. Beauv. (Synonyms: Panicum crus-galli)
Common Name(s)
Barnyardgrass, barnyard grass, cockspur grass, Japanese millet
Tribe / Family Name
Paniceae
Flowering Period
July to September
Symbol
ECCR
Description
Barnyardgrass is an introduced warm-season annual bunchgrass that reproduces from seed. Culms range from 30–200 cm in height. Its inflorescence is a contracted panicle that is 5–25 cm long, erect or nodding with usually 5–12 racemosely arranged lateral branches, and often reddish to dark purple. Spikelets are 2.5–4 mm long (excluding awns), subsessile, arranged in a secund manner, slightly turgid to more or less laterally compressed, and 2-flowered (the first floret sterile, the second perfect); disarticulation below the glumes. Glumes are unequal (the lower glumes up to 1.6 mm long, pointed, 3-nerved, occasionally with a small awn up to 0.5 mm long; upper glume up to 3.2 mm long, pointed, 5-nerved, acuminate to awned, (awns up to 1.5 mm long). Sterile lower lemmas are greenish and unawned to awned (awns up to 50 mm long). Fertile upper lemmas are usually 2.2–3 mm long, yellowish with a hard, boney texture, plano-convex, and awnless. Sheaths are open and glabrous. Auricles are absent. Ligules are absent, though ligule area sometimes pubescent. Blades are up to 65 cm long, up to 30 mm wide, flat with a few papillae along the margins near the collar that occasionally have hairs, scabrous along the margins, and usually glabrous to sometimes sparsely hirsute.
General Info
Barnyardgrass is a self-pollinating, prolific seed-producing plant that can be found in moist waste places, irrigation ditches, edges of crop fields, pastures, lawns, foothills, plains, and montane areas.
Similar Species
Barnyardgrass is distinctive and probably won’t be confused with other grasses. Many other grasses produce ligules that are either membranous or hairy. This type of grass produces no ligule of any kind.
Picture of growth habit.
Close-up picture of contracted panicle that is 2-10" long and erect or nodding with 5-12 racemosely arranged lateral branches.
Close-up picture of sterile lower lemma (left), fertile upper lemma (center), and upper glume (right).
Close-up picture of lower glume and sterile lower lemma with awn.
Close-up picture of upper glume.
Close-up picture of absent ligule.
Illustration of barnyardgrass. USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / USDA NRCS. <i>Wetland flora: Field office illustrated guide to plant species</i>. USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.