Panicum frumentaceum Roxburgh, Fl. Ind. 1: 307. 1820, not Salisbury (1796); Echinochloa colona (Linnaeus) Link var. frumentacea Ridley; E. crusgalli (Linnaeus) P. Beauvois var. edulis Hitchcock, nom. illeg. superfl.; E. crusgalli var. frumen-tacea (Link) W. P. Wight; Oplismenus frumentaceus (Link) Kunth.

Annual. Culms robust, erect, 1–1.5 m tall. Leaf sheaths smooth and glabrous; leaf blades linear, soft, 15–40 × 1–2.4 cm, glabrous, margins thickened and wavy. Inflorescence erect, lanceolate, 10–20 cm, axis robust, scabrous along edges and with tubercle-based hairs; racemes 1–3 cm, curved, simple, closely spaced and overlapping. Spikelets greenish, tardily deciduous, plump, ovate-elliptic to rotund, 2.5–3.5 mm, pubescent to hispid, awnless; lower glume 1/3–2/5 as long as spikelet; upper glume slightly shorter than spikelet; lower lemma herbaceous, sterile; upper lemma 2–3 mm. Caryopsis long persistent, eventually falling. Fl. and fr. Aug–Sep. 2n = 36, 54.

Echinochloa frumentacea is cultivated both for grain and as a forage crop. It is thought to be a cultivated derivative of E. colona that arose in India and perhaps Africa.

A crop plant. Anhui, Guangxi, Guizhou, Heilongjiang, Henan, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan [cultivated in Africa and tropical Asia].