A robust, rhizomatous, reedlike perennial, erect to 3 or 4 m high, along the edges of water, but also developing spongy horizontal stems spreading for many meters across the water surface, or open mud, rooting at the nodes. Leaves up to 60 cm long, 2 cm wide, glabrous when growing in the water, but erect plants can have sharp, irritating hairs on the leaf and sheath. Ligule a line of hairs. Inflorescence green or purplish, up to 30 cm long with many overlapping racemes up to 10 cm long, simple or branched. Spikelets elliptic, plump, 3–4 mm long, glabrous or shortly hairy, with longer hairs on the veins. Upper glume as long as the spikelet;lower glume less than half as long. Lower lemma awnless or with an occasional awn up to 1 or 2 mm long. Upper glume 2–3 mm. (Mainly from Chippindall 1955;Clayton and Renvoize 1982;and Clayton 1989).
Preliminary work is reported from Kenya, to identify and survey E. pyramidalis by satellite imagery (Schmidt and Skidmore, 2001).
Related invasive species
- Echinochloa pyramidalis
Related Farm Practice
- Rooting
- Hosts
Related location
- India
- Philippines
E. pyramidalis, a perennial grass, has decidedly invasive characteristics with its vigorous shoot and rhizome growth and abundant seed production. As an aquatic, it also has the potential to be very damaging to sensitive aquatic habitats. Holm et al. (1979) record it as a major weed in its native area in Nigeria, Swaziland, Sudan and Madagascar. In Guyana, after being introduced and cultivated for some years, it was noticed as a weed in sugar cane in 1982 and increased rapidly to become one of the most troublesome weeds in the aquatic system of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (Bishundial et al., 1997). In Mexico, again after introduction as a fodder grass, it has become widely invasive in wetlands, tending to reduce native wetland species (López Rosas et al., 2010). Apart from its competitive growth, Wells et al. (1986) note its tendency to obstruct water flow. For the USA it is highly ranked as a potential invasive weed of the future (Parker et al., 2007) and it has been identified as a species ‘not authorized (for introduction) pending pest risk analysis’ (NAPPRA) (USDA-APHIS, 2012).
E. pyramidalis is considered a weed in the rice fields of Australia, India, Philippines, and tropical America (Pancho, 1991;López Rosas, 2007) and also in Africa (e.g. Kent et al., 2001). Other irrigated crops such as sugar cane are also affected directly or indirectly as a result of E. pyramidalis infesting irrigation channels, restricting water flow and/or encroaching into the crop (Bushundial et al., 1991;Bishundial et al., 1997).