Quick Facts

Quick facts

• Echinochloa glabrescens (a Barnyard Grass) is an erect annual grass that has a closely tufted habit in wetlands, but becomes spreading in dry situations.
• It prefers inundated areas, especially rice paddies, as well as fallow ground and cropping land.
• Vegetative fragments and seeds are probably dispersed in water.
• Other Barnyard Grasses are important weeds of rice in Australia.

What Does It Look Like?

What is it?

Echinochloa glabrescens (Barnyard Grass) is an upright annual grass, 50–100 cm high, with a closely tufted habit in wetlands, but a spreading habit in dry situations. The leaf sheaths clasp the stem tightly and the leaf blades are strap-like, 10–20 cm long and 5–8 mm wide, with a long thin apex (tip).

The inflorescence is closely branched, 10–20 cm long, and the flower clusters are 2.5–8 cm long and up to 7 mm in diameter.

The fruit is held tightly within its bracts and shed as a unit (PIER 2008).

For further information and assistance with identification of Barnyard Grass, contact the herbarium in your state or territory.

Flower colour

Unknown

Growth form (weed type/habit)

Grass

Where it currently grows? Preferred habitat

Echinochloa glabrescens prefers inundated areas, especially rice paddies, as well as fallow ground and cropping land (PIER 2008).

Are there similar species?

There are 30-40 species in the genus Echinochloa, 19 of which occur in Australia. The use of keys and descriptions for the species occurring in Australia, such as in Sharp & Simon (2002), can provide help in correctly identifying the species.

For further information and assistance with identification of Echinochloa glabrescens, contact the herbarium in your state or territory.

Why Is It A Weed?

What are its impacts?

Agriculture: In south-east Asia, Echinochloa glabrescens is a weed of rice and maize (PIER 2008). In Australia, Barnyard grasses (Echinochloa species) are problem weeds traditionally associated with sod or combine sown rice. Surveys in New South Wales suggest that Barnyard grasses are a major impediment to rice production. It requires significant expenditure in herbicides and extra water for control and reduces rice yields (Pratley & Broster 2004).

How does it spread?

The seeds and vegetative fragments of Echinochloa glabrescens are probably dispersed in water (PIER 2008).

What is its history in Australia?

Echinochloa glabrescens is not naturalised in Australia.

How To Manage It?

Best practice management

Echinochloa glabrescens is not naturalised in Australia and as such there is no information about control methods in Australia. 

Non-chemical control: In New South Wales rice crops, Barnyard grasses (Echinochloa species) have been controlled to a significant extent by increasing water level in rice bays and by the widespread adoption of aerial sowing.

Chemical control: Herbicides have been used to control Barnyard grasses, but there is increasing concern about the occurrence of herbicide resistance in the aquatic weeds of rice (Pratley & Broster 2004).

Please see the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority for chemical information http://www.apvma.gov.au 

Does it have a biological control agent?

NO

When does it grow? (lifecycle/growth calendar)

Echinochloa glabrescens is not naturalised in Australia and as such there is no information about its growth calendar in Australia. However, a closely related Barnyard Grass, Echinochloa crus-galli, germinates from September to January, and flowers and seeds from November to March in New South Wales (Crawford & Senn 2006).

Where Is It Found?

Which states and territories is it found?

Not naturalised in any Australian state or territory.

What areas within states and territories is it found?

Echinochloa glabrescens is not naturalised in Australia.

Where does it originate?

Echinochloa glabrescens is native to eastern Asia (PIER 2008).

National And State Weed Listings

Is it a Weed of National Significance (WONS)?

NO

Where is it a declared weed?

NT

Government weed strategies and lists – Weeds Australia

Is it on the National Alert List for Environmental Weeds?

NO

Government weed strategies and lists – Weeds Australia

Is it on the Agricultural Sleeper List?

NO

Government weed strategies and lists – Weeds Australia

Names And Taxonomy

Main scientific name

Echinochloa glabrescens

Other scientific names (synonyms)?

Echinochloa crus-galli auct. non (L.) Beauv.