Taxon: Pennisetum polystachion (L.) Schult.

A declared noxious weed by USDA-APHIS.

A declared aquatic or terrestrial noxious weed and/or noxious-weed seed in these U.S. states (see state noxious weed lists), with links to state information or web documents:

FL*, MA*, NC*.

ªAquatic.

*Terrestrial.

°In seed.

Link to noxious weed information from

See also subordinate taxa:

• Pennisetum polystachion subsp. atrichum (no accessions)
• Pennisetum polystachion subsp. polystachion (no accessions)

Common names:

• feather pennisetum   (Source: Pl Res SEAs ) – English
  
• mission grass   (Source: World Worst Weeds ) – English
  
• thin Napier grass   (Source: Mansf Ency ) – English
  
• capim-avião   (Source: D. Groth, p.c. 2005) – Portuguese (Brazil)
  
• capim-custódio   (Source: D. Groth, p.c. 2005) – Portuguese (Brazil)
  
• capim-mandante   (Source: D. Groth, p.c. 2005) – Portuguese (Brazil)
  
• capim-oferecido   (Source: D. Groth, p.c. 2005) – Portuguese (Brazil)
  

More:

see MMPND for additional names in foreign scripts

Economic importance:

• Animal food: potential as fodder   (fide Pl Res SEAs 4:189. 1992)
  
• Weed: also potential seed contaminant   (fide Noxweed Aust; Invasive Pl Spec)
  

Distributional range:

      Native:

• AFRICA
  Macaronesia: Cape Verde
  Northeast Tropical Africa: Ethiopia
  East Tropical Africa: Kenya; Tanzania; Uganda
  West-Central Tropical Africa: Cameroon; Gabon; Zaire
  West Tropical Africa: Benin; Burkina Faso; Cote D'Ivoire; Gambia; Ghana; Guinea; Guinea-Bissau; Liberia; Mali; Niger; Nigeria; Senegal; Sierra Leone; Togo
  South Tropical Africa: Malawi; Mozambique; Zambia; Zimbabwe

      Naturalized: (links to other web resources are provided for some distributions)

• naturalized in tropical Asia, Australia, Micronesia, Melanesia, Polynesia, & Hawaii

References:

• 't Mannetje, L. & R. M. Jones, eds. 1992. Forages. Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). (Pl Res SEAs) 4:189.
• Arechavaleta, M. et al., eds. 2005. Lista preliminar de especies silvestres de Cabo Verde: hongos, plantas y animales terrestres. (L Cabo Verde)
• Bor, N. L. 1960. The grasses of Burma, Ceylon, India, and Pakistan. (Grass BCIP)
• Catasús Guerra, L. J. Cavanillesia Altera
• Dassanayake, M. D. & F. R. Fosberg, eds. 1980–. A revised handbook to the flora of Ceylon. (F Ceylon)
• Exell, A. W. et al., eds. 1960–. Flora zambesiaca. (F Zamb)
• Groth, D. 2005. pers. comm. [re. Brazilian common names].
• Hanelt, P., ed. 2001. Mansfeld's encyclopedia of agricultural and horticultural crops. Volumes 1-6. (Mansf Ency) 5:2673.
• Hedberg, I. & S. Edwards. 1989–. Flora of Ethiopia. (and Eritrea. 2000) (F Ethiop)
• Holm, L. G. et al. 1977. The world's worst weeds: distribution and biology. (World Worst Weeds)
• Holm, L. et al. 1979. A geographical atlas of world weeds. (Atlas WWeed)
• Keay, R. W. J. & F. N. Hepper. 1953–1972. Flora of west tropical Africa, ed. 2. (F WT Afr)
• Lazarides, M. 1980. The tropical grasses of Southeast Asia. (Grass SEAs)
• Parsons, W. T. & E. G. Cuthbertson. 1992. Noxious weeds of Australia. (Noxweed Aust)
• Porcher, M. H. et al. Searchable World Wide Web Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database (MMPND) - on-line resource. (Pl Names)
• Schmelzer, G. H. 1997. Review of Pennisetum section Brevivalvula (Poaceae). Euphytica 97:6.
• Shukla, U. 1996. Grasses of north-eastern India. (Grass NE India)
• Turrill, W. B. et al., eds. 1952–. Flora of tropical East Africa. (F TE Afr)
• Weber, E. 2003. Invasive plant species of the world: a reference guide to environmental weeds. (Invasive Pl Spec)
• Zuloaga, F. O. et al. 2003. Catalogue of New World grasses (Poaceae): III. Subfamilies Panicoideae, Aristidoideae, Arundinoideae, and Danthonioideae. Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 46:533.

More:

Search AGRICOLA article citation database for citations referencing Pennisetum polystachion.

Search NCBI's Entrez search engine for PubMed citations referencing Pennisetum polystachion. Note: Defaults to a search by genus or species epithet if species binomial not found.

Synonyms:

• Panicum polystachion L. [≡ Pennisetum polystachion subsp. polystachion]
  
• Pennisetum atrichum Stapf & C. E. Hubb. [≡ Pennisetum polystachion subsp. atrichum]
  

Check other databases for Pennisetum polystachion (L.) Schult.:

• On-line Flora of Zimbabwe
• CNWG: Catalogue of New World Grasses Searchable Database
• World Grass Species-Descriptions: Morphological species description from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• Mansfeld: Mansfeld's World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops
• ePIC: Electronic Plant Information Centre of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• AGRICOLA: Article Citation Database or NAL Catalog of USDA's National Agricultural Library
• Entrez: NCBI's search engine for PubMed citations, GenBank sequences, etc.
  Note: Defaults to a search by genus or species epithet if species binomial not found.

Images:

• Disseminule drawings: U.S. National Seed Herbarium drawing
• Embryo drawing: U.S. National Seed Herbarium drawing

More:

• Check PlantSystematics.org for additional images
• Images Note: Be advised that their identity may be inaccurate. Proper identification of a plant may require specialized taxonomic knowledge or comparison with properly documented herbarium material.

Abbreviations & symbols in GRIN Taxonomy

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| USDA | ARS | GRIN | NPGS | New Search |

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Cite as:
USDA, ARS, National Genetic Resources Program.
Germplasm Resources Information Network - (GRIN) [Online Database].
National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland.
URL: http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?27207 (09 February 2010)

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