Grass or grass-like · Poaceae
Coast cockspur grass
Echinochloa walteri
Coast cockspur grass is recorded as native to 26 states and territories in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in 346 counties of those states by USDA PLANTS.
Key facts · USDA PLANTS
Coast cockspur grass at a glance
- Native in
- 346 counties, across 26 states and territories
- Estimated cold hardiness
- Zone 10b PLANTS minimum temperature 32°F
- Mature height
- 6.5 ft PLANTS mature height
- Light and water
- Full sun (shade-intolerant) High water use
Estimated cold hardiness: zone 10b. PLANTS gives a minimum temperature of 32°F; zone 10b winters bottom out at 35°F, the coldest half-zone that stays within that limit.
Coast cockspur grass is recorded as native to 26 states and territories in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in 346 counties of those states by USDA PLANTS.
Counties where it is native
The 15 counties with the most ZIP codes among the 346 where it is listed.
Native counties by state
- Alabama 5 counties
- Arkansas 5 counties
- Connecticut statewide record
- Delaware 2 counties
- District of Columbia 1 county
- Florida 42 counties
- Georgia 4 counties
- Illinois 23 counties
- Indiana 12 counties
- Kentucky 3 counties
- Louisiana 52 counties
- Massachusetts 10 counties
- Michigan 14 counties
- Minnesota 9 counties
- Mississippi 2 counties
- Missouri 1 county
- New Jersey 12 counties
- New York 22 counties
- North Carolina 14 counties
- Ohio 6 counties
- Pennsylvania 3 counties
- Rhode Island 2 counties
- South Carolina 7 counties
- Texas 47 counties
- Virginia 27 counties
- Wisconsin 21 counties
Growing traits
Values from the PLANTS characteristics record. “Not recorded” means PLANTS has no value; nothing here is estimated except the zone.
Growth
- Growth habit
- Graminoid
- Duration
- Annual
- Mature height
- 6.5 ft
- Growth rate
- Moderate
- Growth form
- Bunch
- Shape
- Erect
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Active growth period
- Summer
Light and water
- Shade tolerance
- Intolerant (full sun (shade-intolerant))
- Moisture use
- High water use
- Drought tolerance
- Low
- Tolerance of waterlogged soil
- High
- Precipitation range
- 28 to 50 in per year
Soil
- Soil textures
- Fine
- pH range
- 3.8 to 9.4
- Lime (CaCO₃) tolerance
- Medium
- Salinity tolerance
- Medium
- Fertility requirement
- Low
- Minimum root depth
- 14 in
Climate
- Minimum temperature
- 32°F
- Estimated cold hardiness
- Zone 10b and warmer
- Minimum frost-free days
- 120
- Fire tolerance
- Medium
Flowers, leaves and fruit
- Flower color
- Green
- Showy flowers
- No
- Bloom period
- Summer
- Foliage color
- Green
- Showy in fall
- No
- Keeps leaves
- No
- Fruit color
- Yellow
Other
- Toxicity
- None
- Nitrogen fixation
- None
- Nursery availability
- Contracting Only
- Family
- Poaceae
- PLANTS symbol
- ECWA
Source & data date
- Source
- USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: county distribution records, native status and plant characteristics. CC0 (public domain dedication, per the data.gov catalog record).
- Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP): native or introduced status by state. CC BY 3.0.
- USGS US-RIIS (ver. 2.0): species listed as introduced are excluded. CC0.
- Citation
- USDA, NRCS. 2026. The PLANTS Database (https://plants.usda.gov, 11/04/2026). National Plant Data Team, Greensboro, NC USA.
- Govaerts R. (ed.) (2026). WCVP: World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Data file dated 2026-06-04, http://sftp.kew.org/pub/data-repositories/WCVP/ (retrieved 2026-11-04). Paper: Govaerts R. et al. (2021) The World Checklist of Vascular Plants, a continuously updated resource for exploring global plant diversity. Scientific Data 8, 215.
- Data date
- Retrieved from PLANTS on November 4, 2026; WCVP data file dated June 4, 2026.
- Scope
- Echinochloa walteri (PLANTS symbol ECWA).
- Method
- A species is listed when it is recorded as native to the state in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in the county by USDA PLANTS. Species PLANTS labels both native and introduced are listed separately. Full method · All sources