Echinochloa esculenta (A. Braun) H. Scholz, Poaceae

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Present on Pacific Islands?  yes

Primarily a threat at high elevations?  no

Risk assessment results:  High risk, score: 8 (Go to the risk assessment)

Other Latin names:  Echinochloa crus-galli subsp. utilis (Ohwi & Yabuno) T. Koyama; Echinochloa utilis Ohwi & Yabuno; Panicum esculentum A. Braun

Common name(s): [more details]

Chinese: zi sui bai

English: Japanese barnyard millet, Japanese millet

French: millet Japanais

Japanese: hie

Spanish: mijo japonés

Habit:  grass

Description:  "Robust, erect, light green annuals. Leaf-sheath light green to pale creamy brown, chartaceous, glabrous, rather loosely enfolding culm, slightly keeled above, finely striate. Ligule 0; ligular area glabrous. Leaf-blade (13)-17-30 cm x 10-16 mm, chartaceous, flat, linear, smooth, or adaxially rarely slightly scabrid on primary lateral ribs, midrib whitish, very distinct; margins whitish, slightly thickened, finely scabrid, tapering to subacute tip. Culm (35)-40-60 cm, stout, internodes glabrous. Panicle 6.5-12 cm, erect, very dense, usually with numerous close-set, sessile, often subverticillate racemes; rachis angular, ridged, scabrid, with a dense ring of bristle-like hairs at base and at nodes. Racemes 1.5-3-(4) cm, of many small dense clusters of spikelets; pedicels finely scabrid, < 1 mm. Spikelets 3-4 mm, purplish, sometimes whitish green, broadly ovate to subglobose, subacute. Glumes quite unequal, firmly membranous, 5-nerved, nerves scabrid, internerves usually finely scabrid-pubescent; lower 1-1.5 mm, enwrapping base of spikelet, upper 2.5-3.5 mm, ≈ spikelet, reflexed at maturity exposing upper part of ripening ☿ floret. Lower floret: lemma similar to upper glume,. 3 mm, 7-nerved, rotund-ovate, shortly acuminate or shortly cuspidate, nerves scabrid to hispid, internerves minutely scabrid-pubescent; palea < lemma, hyaline, keels minutely scabrid near apex. Upper floret: lemma. 3 mm, broadly elliptic to rotundate, very convex, crustaceous, obscurely 5-nerved, glabrous, shining, with a minute herbaceous cusp; palea. 2.5 mm; anthers 0.8-1 mm, yellowish brown to blackish; caryopsis. 1.5 x 1.5 mm, orbicular, very turgid, yellowish or brownish"  (Edgar & Connor, 2000; p. 548).

Description from GrassBase.

Habitat/ecology:  In New Zealand and the Kermadec Islands, "Stony waste land, coastal sands, roadsides (mostly from seed spillages), crops"  (Edgar & Connor, 2000; p. 548).

Propagation:  Seed

Native range:  Eastern Asia and Japan (Edgar & Connor, 2000; p. 548).

Presence:

Pacific
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
State of Hawaii Hawaiian Islands	Maui Island	introduced invasive cultivated	Herbst, Derral R./Clayton, W. D. (1998) (p. 24) East Maui. Voucher cited: Hosaka 1799 (BISH)
New Zealand (offshore islands) Kermadec Islands	Kermadec Islands	introduced invasive	Edgar, E./Connor, H. (2000) (p. 548)

Pacific Rim
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
China China	China (People's Republic of)	probably native cultivated	Zhengyi, Wu/Raven, Peter H./Deyuan, Hong (2011)
Japan Japan	Japan (country)	probably native	Edgar, E./Connor, H. (2000) (p. 548)
New Zealand New Zealand	New Zealand (country)	introduced invasive	Edgar, E./Connor, H. (2000) (p. 548)
United States (west coast) United States (west coast states)	USA (California)	introduced	U.S. Dept. Agr., Nat. Res. Cons. Serv. (2011)

Also reported from
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
United States (continental except west coast) United States (other states)	USA (Florida)	introduced	U.S. Dept. Agr., Nat. Res. Cons. Serv. (2011)

Additional information:
Additional online information about Echinochloa esculenta is available from the Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (HEAR).

Information about Echinochloa esculenta as a weed (worldwide references) may be available from the Global Compendium of Weeds (GCW).

Taxonomic information about Echinochloa esculenta may be available from the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN).

References:

Edgar, E./Connor, H. 2000. Flora of New Zealand, vol. V: Gramineae. Manaaki Whenua Press. .

Herbst, Derral R./Clayton, W. D. 1998. Notes on the grasses of Hawai‘i: new records, corrections, and name changes. In: Evenhuis, Neal L. and Miller, Scott, E., eds. Records of the Hawaii Biological Survey for 1997. Part 1: Articles. Bishop Museum Occasional Papers. 55:17-38.

U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. 2011. National Genetic Resources Program. Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Online searchable database.

U.S. Dept. Agr., Nat. Res. Cons. Serv. 2011. The PLANTS Database. National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

Zhengyi, Wu/Raven, Peter H./Deyuan, Hong. 2011. Flora of China (online resource).