Plants annual. Culms to 150 cm, erect. Sheaths glabrous;
ligules absent; blades 15-60 cm long, 8-20 mm wide, scabrous adaxially.
Panicles 8-40 cm, erect to slightly drooping, rachis nodes hispid, hairs
papillose-based; primary branches 2-19 cm, erect to spreading, often widely
spaced, longer branches with secondary branching. Spikelets 3.3-4.5 mm
long, 2.4-2.6 mm wide, disarticulating at maturity, greenish or purplish, scabrous
and hispid, hairs to 1 mm, often papillose-based. Upper glumes about as
long as the spikelets; lower florets staminate; lower lemmas usually
awned, awns 1-15 mm, purplish; lower paleas well-developed; upper lemmas
broadly ovate, narrowing abruptly to the acute or acuminate apices; anthers
of upper florets 1.2-1.7 mm. Caryopses 1.5-1.8 mm. 2n = unknown.
Echinochloa paludigena is native to swamps, riverbanks, and other wet habitats.
Reports from Texas and Louisiana appear to be based on misidentifications; Wunderlin
(1988) considers E. paludigena as a Florida endemic.