May 17, 2023
Summer Annual Grasses
We have a large amount of summer grasses emerging right now in the desert. Identification is very important. Knowing the field history is helpful to plan your preemergence herbicide applications.
There is a tendency to group summer grasses together and called them all watergrass, or barnyard grass especially because they are so difficult to identify at early growth stages.
Some of these grasses respond differently to herbicides. For example, sprangletop is only controlled by the high rates of Select (clethodim) and clethodim generics and missed by other postemergence herbicides such as Post (sethoxydim) and Fusilade (fluazifop).
Others like Field Sandbur (Cenchrus pauciflorus) and Sandbur (Cenchrus echinatus) are tolerant to these herbicides which don’t achieve acceptable control.
From the more than 25 annual grass species found in our area during the summer I listed in 13 commonly found below that are in the Section VI of the PCA study guide.
Also, the following is a link Summer Annual Grass Identification to a publication by Barry Tickes with images and description of the 6 genera and 12 species of summer annual grasses that are common here.
Summer Annual Grasses
There is a tendency to group summer grasses together and called them all watergrass, or barnyard grass especially because they are so difficult to identify at early growth stages.
Some of these grasses respond differently to herbicides. For example, sprangletop is only controlled by the high rates of Select (clethodim) and clethodim generics and missed by other postemergence herbicides such as Post (sethoxydim) and Fusilade (fluazifop).
Others like Field Sandbur (Cenchrus pauciflorus) and Sandbur (Cenchrus echinatus) are tolerant to these herbicides which don’t achieve acceptable control.
From the more than 25 annual grass species found in our area during the summer I listed in 13 commonly found below that are in the Section VI of the PCA study guide.
Also, the following is a link Summer Annual Grass Identification to a publication by Barry Tickes with images and description of the 6 genera and 12 species of summer annual grasses that are common here.
Summer Annual Grasses
Barnyardgrass |
Echinochloa crus-galli |
Red sprangletop |
Leptochloa filormus |
Prairie Cupgrass |
Eriochloa contracta |
Field sandbur |
Cenchrus spinifex |
Yellow foxtail |
Setaria glauca |
Feather fingergrass |
Chloris virgata |
Crowfootgrass |
Dactyloctenium aegyptium |
Junglerice (Watergrass) |
Echinochloa colona |
Mexican sprangletop |
Leptochloa fusca |
Southwestern Cupgrass |
Eriochloa acuminata |
Southern sandbur |
Cenchrus echinatus |
Green foxtail |
Setaria viridis |
Sixweeks grama |
Bouteloua barbata |
Figure 1. Left southern sandbur and right field sandbur
To contact Marco Pena go to: marcop@ag.arizona.edu