Common name: Prickly Barnyard Grass
Echinochloa microstachya (Wiegand) Rydb. APNI* 
Description: Robust to slender annual to 1.2 m high.
Leaves with ligule absent; blade to 13 mm wide.
Panicle erect, to 17 cm long; racemes 2–8 cm long near base. Spikelets crowded, elliptic to ovate, 3–3.5 mm long, with tubercle-based spinules. Lower glume c. 30% of spikelet length, acute with a short point or acuminate and shortly cuspidate, 3–5-nerved, spinulose to scabrous on nerves; upper equal to spikelet, acuminate or cuspidate, 5-nerved, with tubercle-based spinules. Lower lemma equal to spikelet, similar in texture to lower glume, acuminate cuspidate or with an awn to 7 mm long, with tubercle-based hairs on nerves. Fertile lemma 3–3.25 mm long, apex long-acuminate, smooth, shining, yellowish to greyish, Lower palea shorter and narrower than lower lemma. Upper palea subequal to fertile lemma, similar in texture. Lower palea shorter and narrower than lower lemma. Upper palea subequal to fertile lemma, similar in texture.
Flowering: summer.
Distribution and occurrence: Weed of rice-fields. Native of Amer. & W Indies.
NSW subdivisions: *CC, *ST, *SWS, *SWP
Text by S. W. L. Jacobs & T. A. James
Taxon concept: Flora of NSW 4 (1993)
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
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