Napier grass
| Napier grass | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Napier grass |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Pennisetum purpureum | ||||||||||||
| Schumach. |
The Napier grass ( Pennisetum purpureum , Syn .: Cenchrus purpureus (Schumach.) Morrone ), including elephant grass or Uganda grass called, is a plant from the family of grasses (Poaceae).
description
The napier grass grows as a perennial herbaceous plant , mostly with rhizomes , in bamboo- like clumps and reaches heights of up to 4.5 m, rarely up to 7.5 meters. The leaves have a length of up to 120 cm and a width of about 5 cm. The leaf envelopes are smooth or slightly hairy at the leaf node.
The flowers are in 4.5 to 7 mm long spikelets in a 7 to 30 cm long, dense paniculate inflorescence, which usually has a yellowish-brown, rarely a purple color. The anthers have a small tuft of hair.
The number of chromosomes is 2n = 28, less often 21.
Occurrence
The napier grass is native to the tropical grasslands of Africa . Its home area extends from the Sahara to tropical Africa and also includes the Arabian Peninsula and Aldabra . The origin of this plant species is in Zimbabwe in the subtropical zone of southern Africa, but it is now also grown by humans in most tropical and subtropical countries and is the most widely grown forage grass. The name elephant grass, which is also common, comes from the fact that it is the elephants' favorite food .
The napier grass grows at altitudes between sea level and 2000 meters. It thrives best in areas with high annual rainfall of over 1500mm. Due to its deep root system, Napier grass can tolerate short periods of drought, but not floods. Napier grass grows best in deep heavy to medium-heavy soils.
Use in agriculture
Napier grass has a very high yield, which can be used both as fodder grass and for the production of biofuel .
Napier grass can die off from light frosts, but it is usually harvested before winter so that it can be burned in power plants.
It has been proposed as a countermeasure for the stem borer in North America according to push-pull technology because it attracts these pests, and it is already used for this in Kenya . The females lay their eggs on the leaves, but when the hatched larvae try to penetrate the plant, it reacts by releasing a tough slime that kills the pests.
According to John Seymour , napier grass was planted on man-made terraces in Kenya to stop erosion .
Systematics
Pennisetum purpureum was first published in 1827 by Heinrich Christian Friedrich Schumacher in Beskrivelse af guineiske planter som ere fundne af danske botanikere, især af Etatsraad. Thonning , page 44. Synonyms are: Gymnotrix nitens Andersson , Pennisetum benthamii Steudel , Pennisetum flexispica K. Schumann , Pennisetum. hainanense H.R. Zhao & AT Liu , Pennisetum macrostachyum Bentham , Pennisetum nitens (Andersson) Hackel , Cenchrus purpureus (Schumach.) Morrone .
Cultural forms
- Pennisetum purpureum var. Merkeri (Merker grass) is similar to normal Napier grass, but with finer leaves and stems. It is grown in Puerto Rico and other areas of the Caribbean. It is more drought-resistant than normal Napier grass, but has less yield and poorer nutritional value. (Whyte, Moir & Cooper, 1959). It is resistant to Helminthosporium sp. in Puerto Rico (Vicente-Chandler et al., 1953)
- 'Capricorn' was developed at the Biloela Research Station in Queensland , Australia for areas with heavy rainfall of over 2,500mm per year. It is more leafy, tastier, and blooms later than normal Napier grass.
- 'Pusa Giant Napier' produces good harvests in Sri Lanka on good soils, but is produced by Helminthosporium sp. infested (Pathirana & Siriwardene, 1973)
- 'Merkiron' and 'Costa Rica 532' are used in Colombia and in "French Cameroon", the Gold Coast in West Africa and British Cameroon in Africa.
- 'Chad' is recommended by Prasad and Singh (1973) for cultivation under arid conditions in Western Rajasthan in India.
Pests
Napier grass can die off from root and stem rot caused by Helminthosporium sacchari .
swell
- WD Clayton: Gramineae in the Flora Zambesiaca , Volume 10, Part 3, 1989: Pennisetum purpureum - Online.
- Shou-liang Chen & Sylvia M. Phillips: Pennisetum in the Flora of China : Pennisetum purpureum - Online.
Individual evidence
- ^ Tropicos. [1]
- ↑ Rafaël Govaerts (ed.): Pennisetum purpureum. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved November 21, 2016.
- ↑ Dr. Ricarda Steinbrecher, testimony to Agriculture and Forestry Committee of Senate of Canada , 5 December 2006
- ↑ ZDF Adventure Knowledge: Using the immune system of plants - organic strategy for sustainable agriculture - The push-pull method makes artificial fertilizers and insect poison superfluous. ( Memento of the original from February 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
