Open Herbarium - Cenchrus echinatus

Cenchrus echinatus L.
Family: Poaceae Southern Sandbur Linda Ann Vorobik and Annaliese Miller, Illustrators	Flora of North America Resources Michael T. Stieber and J.K. Wipff Plants annual. Culms 20-100 cm, ascending from a geniculate base. Sheaths from shorter than to equaling the internodes, compressed; ligules 0.7-1.7 mm; blades 4-18(35) cm long, 2-10(14.2) mm wide, adaxial surfaces sparsely pilose, hairs papillose-based. Panicles 2.5-12 cm; rachis internodes 2-4 mm; fascicles 5-10 mm long, 3.5-6(6.3) mm wide, imbricate; outer bristles 10-20, terete, the majority no more than 1/2 as long as the inner bristles; inner bristles 2-5 mm long, 0.6-1.5 mm wide, flattened, not grooved, mostly erect, fused for at least 1/2 their length into a globose cupule, sometimes interlocking at maturity, shortly pubescent, often purple at maturity. Spikelets 2-3(4) per fascicle, 4.8-7 mm. Lower glumes 1.3-3.4 mm; upper glumes 3.8-5.7 mm, 3-7-veined; lower lemmas 4.5-6.5 mm; upper florets 4.7-7 mm; anthers 0.8-2.4 mm. Caryopses ovoid, 1.2-3.2 mm long, 1.3-2.2 mm wide. 2n = (34), 68. Cenchrus echinatus grows in disturbed areas throughout the coastal plain and piedmont of the southern United States, Mexico, Central and South America, and, as an unwelcome introduction, elsewhere.
Open Interactive Map inaturalist; Linda Jo Conn Forest & Kim Starr Forest & Kim Starr inaturalist; Linda Jo Conn Forest & Kim Starr Forest & Kim Starr Click to Display 7 Total Images