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:

AL*, FL*, MA(as P. polystachyon)*, 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)
• Pennisetum polystachion subsp. setosum (1 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: fodder   (fide Pl Res SEAs 4:189. 1992)
  
• Weed: potential seed contaminant   (fide Noxweed Aust; Invasive Pl Spec)
  

Distributional range:

• AFRICA
  Macaronesia: Cape Verde
  Northeast Tropical Africa: Ethiopia
  East Tropical Africa: Kenya; Tanzania; Uganda
  West-Central Tropical Africa: Cameroon; Congo; 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: Angola; Malawi; Mozambique; Zambia; Zimbabwe
  Western Indian Ocean: Madagascar

• ASIA-TEMPERATE
  China: China
• ASIA-TROPICAL
  Indian Subcontinent: Bangladesh; India; Sri Lanka
  Indo-China: Cambodia; Indochina; Laos; Myanmar; Thailand; Vietnam
  Malesia: Indonesia; Malaysia; Philippines
• AUSTRALASIA
  Australia: Australia - Northern Territory [n.], Queensland [n.]
• NORTHERN AMERICA
  Southeastern U.S.A.: United States - Florida [s.]
  South-Central U.S.A.: United States - Texas [s.e.]
  Southwestern U.S.A.: United States - Arizona [s.], Nevada [s.]
  Southern Mexico: Mexico - Chiapas, Veracruz
• PACIFIC
  North-Central Pacific: United States - Hawaii
  Northwestern Pacific: Guam; Marshall Islands; Micronesia; Northern Mariana Islands; Palau
  South-Central Pacific: French Polynesia
  Southwestern Pacific: Fiji; Solomon Islands; Vanuatu
• SOUTHERN AMERICA
  Caribbean: Barbados; Cuba; Dominica; Grenada; Guadeloupe; Jamaica; Martinique; Puerto Rico; St. Kitts and Nevis; St. Lucia
  Mesoamerica: Belize; Costa Rica; El Salvador; Guatemala; Honduras; Nicaragua; Panama
  Northern South America: Venezuela
  Brazil: Brazil
  Western South America: Bolivia; Colombia; Ecuador; Peru

• ASIA-TROPICAL
  Indian Subcontinent: India
  Indo-China: Thailand
• PACIFIC
  Southwestern Pacific: Fiji

References:

• 't Mannetje, L. & R. M. Jones, eds. 1992. Forages. P. 4:189 in: Faridah Hanum, I. & L. J. G. van der Maesen, eds., Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA).
• Arechavaleta, M. et al., eds. 2005. Lista preliminar de especies silvestres de Cabo Verde: hongos, plantas y animales terrestres.
• Bor, N. L. 1960. The grasses of Burma, Ceylon, India, and Pakistan.
• CIBA-GEIGY, Basel, Switzerland. Documenta CIBA-GEIGY (Grass weeds 1. 1980, 2. 1981; Monocot weeds 3. 1982; Dicot weeds 1. 1988)
• Catasús Guerra, L. J. 2002. Las gramíneas (Poaceae) de Cuba, II. Cavanillesia Altera 3:1–163.
• Dassanayake, M. D. & F. R. Fosberg, eds. 1980–. A revised handbook to the flora of Ceylon.
• Exell, A. W. et al., eds. 1960–. Flora zambesiaca.
• George, A. S., ed. 1980–. Flora of Australia.
• Groth, D. 2005. pers. comm. [re. Brazilian common names].
• Hanelt, P., ed. 2001. Mansfeld's encyclopedia of agricultural and horticultural crops. Volumes 1-6.
• Hedberg, I. & S. Edwards. 1989–. Flora of Ethiopia. (and Eritrea. 2000)
• Holm, L. G. et al. 1977. The world's worst weeds: distribution and biology.
• Holm, L. et al. 1979. A geographical atlas of world weeds.
• Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry. Pacific Island Ecosystems at Risk (PIER): plant threats to Pacific ecosystems (on-line resource).
• Keay, R. W. J. & F. N. Hepper. 1953–1972. Flora of west tropical Africa, ed. 2.
• Lazarides, M. 1980. The tropical grasses of Southeast Asia.
• Parsons, W. T. & E. G. Cuthbertson. 1992. Noxious weeds of Australia.
• Porcher, M. H. et al. Searchable World Wide Web Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database (MMPND) (on-line resource).
• Schmelzer, G. H. 1997. Review of Pennisetum section Brevivalvula (Poaceae). Euphytica 97:6.
• Shukla, U. 1996. Grasses of north-eastern India.
• Sreekumar, P. V. & V. J. Nair. 1991. Flora of Kerala - grasses.
• Turrill, W. B. et al., eds. 1952–. Flora of tropical East Africa.
• Weber, E. 2003. Invasive plant species of the world: a reference guide to environmental weeds.
• Zon, A. P. M. van der. 1992. Graminées du Cameroun.
• 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.

Search Biodiversity Heritage Library for historical publications referencing Pennisetum polystachion.

Synonyms:

• Cenchrus polystachios (L.) Morrone [≡ Pennisetum polystachion subsp. polystachion]
  
• Cenchrus polystachios subsp. atrichus (Stapf & C. E. Hubb.) Morrone [≡ Pennisetum polystachion subsp. atrichum]
  
• Cenchrus setosus Sw. [≡ Pennisetum polystachion subsp. setosum]
  
• Cenchrus subangustus (Schumach.) Morrone [= Pennisetum polystachion subsp. polystachion]
  
• Panicum polystachion L. [≡ Pennisetum polystachion subsp. polystachion]
  
• Panicum subangustum Schumach. [= Pennisetum polystachion subsp. polystachion]
  
• Pennisetum atrichum Stapf & C. E. Hubb. [≡ Pennisetum polystachion subsp. atrichum]
  
• Pennisetum setosum (Sw.) Rich. [≡ Pennisetum polystachion subsp. setosum]
  (previously associated with 19 accessions)
• Pennisetum subangustum (Schumach.) Stapf & C. E. Hubb. [= Pennisetum polystachion subsp. polystachion]
  (previously associated with 2 accessions)

Check other web resources for Pennisetum polystachion (L.) Schult.:

• PLANTS: USDA-NRCS Database of Plants of the United States and its Territories
• BONAP: North American Plant Atlas of the Biota of North America Program
• AVH: Australia's Virtual Herbarium
• ABRS: Australian Biological Resources Study Flora of Australia online
• On-line Flora of Zimbabwe
• TROPICOS: Nomenclatural and Specimen Database of the Missouri Botanical Garden
• CNWG: Catalogue of New World Grasses Searchable Database
• Grass Manual on the Web: Manual of Grasses for North America North of Mexico
• World Grass Species-Descriptions: Morphological species description from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• AusGrass2: Australian grass data from Bryan K. Simon’s on-line database
• 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.

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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