Pennisetum ciliare |
|
---|---|
buffel grass |
|
Habit | Plants perennial; cespitose from a hard, knotty base, with or without rhizomes. |
Culms | 10-150 cm, erect, sometimes branching at the aerial nodes, glabrous, sometimes scabrous beneath the panicle; nodes glabrous. |
Leaves | green or glaucous; sheaths glabrous or pubescent, margins ciliate; ligules 0.5-3 mm, membranous, ciliate; blades 3-50 cm long, 2-13 mm wide, flat, glabrous or pubescent, margins ciliate or glabrous basally. |
Panicles | 2-20 cm long, 4-35 mm wide, fully exerted from the sheaths, erect, green, brown, brown-purple, or dark purple; rachises terete, scabrous. |
Spikelets | 2.5-5.6 mm, sessile, glabrous; lower glumes 1-3 mm, 0-1-veined; upper glumes 1.3-3.4 mm, about 1/2 as long as the spikelet, (0)1-3-veined; lower florets staminate or sterile; lower lemmas 2.5-5.3 mm, 3-7-veined; lower paleas absent or 2.5-5 mm; anthers absent or about 1.4 mm; upper florets not disarticulating at maturity; upper lemmas 2.2-5.4 mm, (3)5(6)-veined, margins glabrous; anthers 1.4-2.7 mm. |
Caryopses | 1.2-1.9 mm long, 0.4-1 mm wide, concealed by the lemma and palea at maturity. |
Fascicles | 11-37 per cm, disarticulating at maturity; fascicle axes 0.2-1.5 cm, with 1-12 spikelets; outer bristles 16-89, 0.3-11.7 mm, many exceeding the spikelets; inner bristles 7-20, 3.8-13.8 mm, fused to 1/4 of their length, flattened, grooved, ciliate; primary bristles 10.5-23 mm, long-ciliate, noticeably longer than the other bristles. |
2n | = 36, 45. |
Pennisetum ciliare |
|
Distribution |
AZ; CA; FL; LA; MO; NM; NY; OK; TX; HI; PR; Virgin Islands
|
Discussion | Pennisetum ciliare is native to Africa, western Asia, and India. It now grows throughout the warmer, drier regions of the world, often as a forage crop, and is established in much of the southeastern United States. It is sometimes included in Cenchrus, based solely on the fusion of its bristles. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 525. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Pennisetum |
Sibling taxa | |
Synonyms | Cenchrus ciliaris |
Name authority | (L.) Link |
Web links |