Taxon: Pennisetum purpureum Schumach.

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:

PR*.

ªAquatic.

*Terrestrial.

°In seed.

Link to noxious weed information from

Common names:

• barner grass   (Source: Aust Pl Common Names ) – English
  
• elephant grass   (Source: World Econ Pl ) – English
  
• Merker grass   (Source: Websters Dict ) – English
  
• Napier grass   (Source: World Econ Pl ) – English
  
• olifantsgras   (Source: Weeds SAfr 2001 ) – Afrikaans
  
• napier   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – French
  
• Elefantengras   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – German
  
• capim-elefante   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – Portuguese
  
• capim-napiê   (Source: D. Groth, p.c. 2005) – Portuguese (Brazil)
  
• capim-napier-elefante   (Source: D. Groth, p.c. 2005) – Portuguese (Brazil)
  
• hierba elefante   (Source: Grass Cuba II) – Spanish
  
• pasto elefante   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – Spanish
  

More:

see MMPND for additional names in foreign scripts

Economic importance:

• Environmental: erosion control   (fide Grass US)
  
• Environmental: ornamental   (fide F NAmer)
  
• Animal food: fodder   (fide Pl Res SEAs 4:191. 1992)
  
• Animal food: forage   (fide Pl Res SEAs 4:191. 1992)
  
• Gene sources: secondary genetic relative of pearl millet   (fide Rao & de Wet 1999)
  
• Weed: potential seed contaminant   (fide Weed CIBA; Invasive Pl Spec)
  

Distributional range:

• AFRICA
  Northeast Tropical Africa: Ethiopia [s.]
  East Tropical Africa: Kenya; Tanzania; Uganda
  West-Central Tropical Africa: Cameroon
  West Tropical Africa: Cote D'Ivoire; Ghana; Guinea; Liberia; Nigeria; Sierra Leone; Togo
  South Tropical Africa: Angola; Malawi; Mozambique; Zambia; Zimbabwe

• AFRICA
  Macaronesia: Portugal - Madeira Islands; Spain - Canary Islands
  Northern Africa: Morocco
  Southern Africa: South Africa; Swaziland
  Western Indian Ocean: Reunion
• ASIA-TEMPERATE
  Western Asia: Cyprus
• ASIA-TROPICAL
  Indian Subcontinent: Bhutan; India
  Indo-China: Cambodia; Laos; Myanmar; Thailand; Vietnam
  Malesia: Indonesia; Malaysia; Papua New Guinea; Philippines
• AUSTRALASIA
  Australia: Australia - New South Wales [e.], Northern Territory [n.], Queensland [e.], Western Australia [s.w.]
  New Zealand: New Zealand
• NORTHERN AMERICA
  Southeastern U.S.A.: United States - Florida
  South-Central U.S.A.: United States - Texas [s.]
  Northern Mexico: Mexico - Nuevo Leon
  Southern Mexico: Mexico - Campeche, Chiapas, Oaxaca, Tabasco, Veracruz, Yucatan
• PACIFIC
  North-Central Pacific: United States - Hawaii
  Northwestern Pacific: Guam; Micronesia; Northern Mariana Islands; Palau
  South-Central Pacific: Cook Islands; French Polynesia
  Southwestern Pacific: Fiji; New Caledonia; Niue; Solomon Islands; Wallis and Futuna Islands
• SOUTHERN AMERICA
  Caribbean: Antigua and Barbuda; Cuba; Grenada; Jamaica; Puerto Rico; St. Lucia
  Mesoamerica: Belize; Costa Rica; El Salvador; Guatemala; Honduras; Nicaragua; Panama
  Northern South America: French Guiana; Guyana; Suriname; Venezuela
  Brazil: Brazil
  Western South America: Bolivia; Colombia; Ecuador - Galapagos Islands; Peru
  Southern South America: Argentina; Paraguay; Uruguay

• ASIA-TEMPERATE
  Western Asia: Israel

• AFRICA
  Africa

References:

• 't Mannetje, L. & R. M. Jones, eds. 1992. Forages. In: Faridah Hanum, I. & L. J. G. van der Maesen, eds., Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). 4:191.
• Acevedo-Rodríguez, P. & M. T. Strong. Flora of the West Indies (on-line resource). [= Cenchrus purpureus].
• Adams, C. 1972. Flowering plants of Jamaica.
• Allan, H. H. B. et al. 1961–. Flora of New Zealand.
• Burkill, H. M. 1985–2004. The useful plants of west tropical Africa.
• 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.
• Chemisquy, M. A. et al. 2010. Phylogenetic studies favour the unification of Pennisetum, Cenchrus and Odontelytrum (Poaceae): a combined nuclear, plastid and morphological analysis, and nomenclatural combinations in Cenchrus. Ann. Bot. (Oxford) 106:129. [= Cenchrus purpureus (Schumach.) Morrone].
• Davidse, G. et al., eds. 1994. Flora mesoamericana.
• Erhardt, W. et al. 2008. Der große Zander: Enzyklopädie der Pflanzennamen.
• Euro+Med Editorial Committee. Euro+Med Plantbase: the information resource for Euro-Mediterranean plant diversity (on-line resource).
• Exell, A. W. et al., eds. 1960–. Flora zambesiaca.
• FNA Editorial Committee. 1993–. Flora of North America.
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 2010. Ecocrop (on-line resource).
• Forzza, R. C. et al., coord. Lista de espécies da flora do Brasil (on-line resource).
• Funk, V. et al. 2007. Checklist of the plants of the Guiana Shield (Venezuela: Amazonas, Bolivar, Delta Amacuro; Guyana, Surinam, French Guiana). Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 55:1-584.
• George, A. S., ed. 1980–. Flora of Australia.
• Germishuizen, G. & N. L. Meyer, eds. 2003. Plants of southern Africa: an annotated checklist. Strelitzia 14.
• Gibbs-Russell, G. E. et al. 1990. Grasses of southern Africa. Mem. Bot. Surv. S. Africa vol. 58.
• Giraldo-Cañas, D. 2011. Catálogo de la familia Poaceae en Colombia. Darwiniana 49:139–247. [= Cenchrus purpureus].
• Görts-van Rijn, A. R. A., ed. 1986–. Flora of the Guianas.
• Grierson, A. J. C. & D. J. Long. 1984–. Flora of Bhutan including a record of plants from Sikkim.
• Groth, D. 2005. pers. comm. [re. Brazilian common names].
• Hedberg, I. & S. Edwards. 1989–. Flora of Ethiopia. (and Eritrea. 2000)
• Henderson, L. 2001. Alien weeds and invasive plants: a complete guide to declared weeds and invaders in South Africa. Plant Protection Research Institute, Handbook 12.
• Hitchcock, A. S. 1950. Manual of the grasses of the United States, ed. 2.
• Hokche, O. et al. 2008. Nuevo catálogo de la flora vascular de Venezola.
• Holm, L. et al. 1979. A geographical atlas of world weeds.
• Howard, R. 1974–1989. Flora of the lesser Antilles.
• Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry. Pacific Island Ecosystems at Risk (PIER): plant threats to Pacific ecosystems (on-line resource).
• Instituto de Botánica Darwinion. 2008. Flora del Conosur. Catálogo de las plantas vasculares. [= Cenchrus purpureus].
• Integrated Botanical Information System (IBIS). Australian plant common name database (on-line resource).
• Kartesz, J. T. 1994. A synonymized checklist of the vascular flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland.
• 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.
• Liogier, H. A. & L. F. Martorell. 2000. Flora of Puerto Rico and adjacent islands: a systematic synopsis, ed. 2.
• Lowe, A. J. et al. 2003. Characterisation of germplasm accessions of Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum and P. purpureum × P. glaucum Hybrids) and comparison with farm clones using RAPD. Genet. Resources Crop Evol. 50:121–132.
• Markle, G. M. et al., eds. 1998. Food and feed crops of the United States, ed. 2.
• Mejía-Saulés, M. T. & P. Dávila A. 1992. Gramíneas Útiles de México. Cuad. Inst. Biol. 16.
• Porcher, M. H. et al. Searchable World Wide Web Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database (MMPND) (on-line resource).
• Randall, R. P. 2007. The introduced flora of Australia and its weed status.
• Rao, S. A. & J. M. J. de Wet. 1999. Chapter 2. Taxonomy and evolution. In: Khairwal, I. S. et al., eds., Pearl millet breeding. 31–47.
• Rehm, S. 1994. Multilingual dictionary of agronomic plants.
• Shukla, U. 1996. Grasses of north-eastern India.
• Sreekumar, P. V. & V. J. Nair. 1991. Flora of Kerala - grasses.
• Tovar, Ó. 1993. Las Gramíneas (Poaceae) del Perú. Ruizia 13:408.
• Turrill, W. B. et al., eds. 1952–. Flora of tropical East Africa.
• Vibrans, H., ed. Malezas de México (on-line resource).
• Villaseñor, J. L. & F. J. Espinoza-Garcia. 2004. The alien flowering plants of Mexico. Diversity & Distrib. 10:113–123.
• Weber, E. 2003. Invasive plant species of the world: a reference guide to environmental weeds.
• Westphal, E. & P. C. M. Jansen, eds. 1989. A selection. In: Faridah Hanum, I. & L. J. G. van der Maesen, eds., Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). A:220.
• Wu Zheng-yi & P. H. Raven et al., eds. 1994–. Flora of China (English edition).
• Zon, A. P. M. van der. 1992. Graminées du Cameroun.
• Zuloaga, F. O. et al. 1994. Catalogo de la familia Poaceae en la Republica Argentina. Monogr. Syst. Bot. Missouri Bot. Gard. 47.
• 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.
• Webster's third new international dictionary.

More:

Search AGRICOLA article citation database for citations referencing Pennisetum purpureum.

Search NCBI's Entrez search engine for PubMed citations referencing Pennisetum purpureum.

Search Biodiversity Heritage Library for historical publications referencing Pennisetum purpureum.

Synonyms:

• (≡) Cenchrus purpureus (Schumach.) Morrone
  
• (=) Pennisetum benthamii Steud.
  (previously associated with 3 accessions)

Check other web resources for Pennisetum purpureum Schumach.:

• 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
• Flora del Conosur: Catálogo de las Plantas Vasculares del Conosur
• Flora of China: Online version from Harvard University
• AVH: Australia's Virtual Herbarium
• ABRS: Australian Biological Resources Study Flora of Australia online
• SIBIS: South African National Biodiversity Institute's (SANBI) Integrated Biodiversity System
• 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:

• Spikelets and/or florets: U.S. National Seed Herbarium image

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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