Coast Cockspur (Echninochloa Walteri)
Poaceae (Grass family)
Group: Monocot (Grass)
Annual grass with thick erect stem native of eastern United States and Canada. It is commonly found in wet environments such as canals, disturbed and undisturbed areas, and along edges of water bodies.
Seedling leaf blades are smooth with no ligule and rolled in a bud. Leaf sheath is hairy.
Leaf blade of mature plants are flat, linear, smooth and minutely rough to touch. Margins are rough to touch. Ligule is absent and the sheath is open with very dense stiff hairs that can prick the skin. It is the only Echinochloa with hairs on the lower leaf sheath.
Stem is erect or ascending, somewhat flattened, bent at nodes, 3 to 6-1/2 feet tall, often rooting on lower nodes when growing in wet areas or water.
Flower or seed head is a panicle 5 to 12 inches long, large, dense, branched, loosely erect to slightly drooping, open, with long stiff hairs or awns. Spikelets are relatively narrow and bristly.
Roots are fibrous.
Propagation is by seed.
