Changes

The grains of ''Echinochloa obtusiflora'' are eaten in Sudan (Kordofan) in times of food scarcity; they are collected from the wild. ''Echinochloa obtusiflora'' is a good forage plant.

Erect, tufted, annual (sometimes perennial) grass up to 1 m tall; stem (culm) erect or ascending. Leaves alternate, simple and entire; leaf sheath glabrous, smooth; ligule ciliate; blade linear, 20–40 cm × 2–9 mm, hairy at base and margins or glabrous. Inflorescence composed of 2–12 racemes along a central axis 5–17 cm long; racemes erect, 1–4 cm long, with spikelets in 4 rows along the rachis. Spikelet elliptical, 2–3.5 mm long, obtuse, somewhat rough towards the tip, 2-flowered with lower floret male and upper bisexual; lower glume obtuse, about one-third as long as the spikelet, upper glume as long as the spikelet; lemma and palea of upper floret with incurved tip; stamens 3; ovary superior, stigmas 2. Fruit a caryopsis (grain).