Echinochloa oryzicola

Rice barnyardgrass

Family: Poaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Rice barnyardgrass is a naturalized annual found in the Sacramento Valley in rice fields at elevations below 100 meters. Flowering from July to September, this grass produces dense, erect clusters of small ovate-elliptical spikelets 4 to 6 millimeters long. Growing in tufted clumps 4 to 14 decimeters tall with stiff, ascending stems, it develops densely pubescent lower leaf sheaths that transition to glabrous or partially pubescent upper leaves. Its lower leaf blades are pubescent while upper leaves are generally glabrous, with stiff ascending foliage. The fruit develops as a brownish seed with distinctive lemmas that have an early-withering, acuminate tip marked by a line of minute hairs.

Habitat: Rice fields

Bloom period: Jul-Sept

Elevation: < 100 m

Bioregions: ScV

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.