Echinochloa crus-galli, commonly called barnyard grass or cockspur, is a robust annual grass of the family Poaceae reaching 0.5 to 1.5 m tall. The stout, often reddish-based culms grow erect or geniculate and branch at the base. The leaves are broad, flat and glabrous, lacking a ligule, which helps distinguish it from many grasses. The coarse, branched panicle is greenish to purplish and composed of several thick, bristly racemes bearing densely packed spikelets, many tipped with rough awns of variable length. It flowers and fruits from summer into autumn, producing abundant grain-like caryopses. A near-cosmopolitan weed of warm and temperate regions, it colonises cultivated fields, rice paddies, ditches and disturbed wet ground, and is one of the world's most troublesome agricultural weeds.
Native Region: Assam, Azores, Baleares, Bangladesh, Belarus, Botswana, Bulgaria, Burkina, Buryatiya, Cambodia, Canary Is., Cape Provinces, Central European Rus, China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Chita, Corse, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., East European Russia, East Himalaya, Egypt, France, Free State, Gulf States, India, Inner Mongolia, Iran, Iraq, Irkutsk, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Jawa, Kamchatka, Kazakhstan, Kazan-retto, Khabarovsk, Kirgizstan, Korea, Krasnoyarsk, Kriti, Krym, KwaZulu-Natal, Laos, Lebanon-Syria, Lesotho, Lesser Sunda Is., Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Altay, Amur, Andaman Is., Assam, Azores, Baleares, Bangladesh, Belarus, Botswana, Bulgaria, Burkina, Buryatiya, Cambodia, Canary Is., Cape Provinces, Central European Rus, China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Chita, Corse, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., East European Russia, East Himalaya, Egypt, France, Free State, Greece, Gulf States, India, Inner Mongolia, Iran, Iraq, Irkutsk, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Jawa, Kamchatka, Kazakhstan, Kazan-retto, Khabarovsk, Kirgizstan, Korea, Krasnoyarsk, Kriti, Krym, KwaZulu-Natal, Laos, Lebanon-Syria, Lesotho, Lesser Sunda Is., Libya, Madagascar, Madeira, Malawi, Malaya, Manchuria, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Namibia, Nansei-shoto, Nepal, New Guinea, Nicobar Is., North Caucasus, Northern Provinces, Northwest European R, Ogasawara-shoto, Pakistan, Palestine, Libya, Madagascar, Madeira, Malawi, Malaya, Manchuria, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Namibia, Nansei-shoto, Nepal, New Guinea, Nicobar Is., North Caucasus, Northern Provinces, Northwest European R, Ogasawara-shoto, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Portugal, Primorye, Qinghai, Romania, Sakhalin, Saudi Arabia, Sicilia, South European Russi, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Swaziland, Tadzhikistan, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Tibet, Togo, Transcaucasus, Turkey, Turkey-in-Europe, Turkmenistan, Tuva, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, West Himalaya, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Yemen, Yugoslavia, Philippines, Portugal, Primorye, Qinghai, Romania, Sakhalin, Saudi Arabia, Sicilia, South European Russi, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Swaziland, Tadzhikistan, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Tibet, Togo, Transcaucasus, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkey-in-Europe, Turkmenistan, Tuva, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, West Himalaya, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Yemen, Yugoslavia