Purple Cirrus [1] , or Elephant Grass ( lat. Pennisetum purpureum ) is a perennial herbaceous plant, a species of the genus Cirrus bristle ( Pennisetum ) of the Cereals family ( Poaceae ). Widespread forage crop in tropical and subtropical countries.
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| Pennisetum purpureum Schumach. , 1827 |
Content
- 1 Synonyms
- 2 Name
- 3 Botanical Description
- 4 Ecology and distribution
- 5 Application
- 6 Cultivation
- 7 notes
Synonyms
- Pennisetum benthamii Steud. [2]
Title
The name of the genus is given for the appearance of inflorescences and is formed from the words "feather" ( lat. Penna ) and "bristly" ( lat. Setum .
The Russian name "elephant grass" is the literal translation of the English name elephant grass . In literature, you can also find the name " Napier grass " ( Eng. Napier grass ) - by name the first of the Europeans who discovered it at the beginning of the XX century in Rhodesia, Colonel Napier [3] .
Botanical Description
Cereal with a powerful root system that penetrates the soil to a depth of 4.5 meters [3] . The stems are tall (vegetative shoots 2-3 meters high, generative - 3-7 meters), up to 2.5 cm in diameter, sometimes branched, form a bush up to a meter in diameter, consisting of 20-200 stems.
The leaves are also large, up to a meter long and 2.5 cm wide.
Inflorescence - spikelet panicle 7-30 cm long.
Ecology and distribution
The plant is thermophilic, photophilous and hygrophilous (especially in the initial period of growth). Under natural conditions, it usually grows in open places. The optimum temperature for development is 24-30 Β° C. It does not tolerate acidic, swampy soils.
The birthplace of elephant grass is Africa . The plant is naturalized in Australia , Central and South America , the southern regions of North America , and the tropical regions of Asia .
Application
Due to its high productivity (up to 400 t / ha per year), elephant grass is a widespread forage crop in the tropics and subtropics. It is used mainly as green food and for silage , less often for hay . Sometimes grown as a plant for pasture .
Young inflorescences are used for making soups. Fences are made from stems, light constructions are used in paper production [4] . Sometimes elephant grass is used as an ornamental plant.
Thanks to its powerful root system, elephant grass is also used to protect soils from erosion.
Cultivation
Elephant grass forms few seeds, moreover, with low germination. Therefore, seed propagation is used less often than vegetative (by stem cuttings , rhizomes , division of the bush), mainly for breeding work. Most often, stem cuttings with 3-4 internodes are used for propagation. From 1 hectare you can get cuttings for planting 30-40 hectares of elephant grass.
Green mass, as a rule, is ready for mowing 75-110 days after planting cuttings. From the beginning of the appearance of inflorescences, the leaves and especially the stems are very rough, which reduces the feed value, so the grass is mowed every 6-8 weeks.
Notes
- β Plant life. In 6 t. / Ch. ed. A. L. Takhtadzhyan. - M .: Education, 1982. - T. 6 Flowering plants / Ed. A. L. Takhtadzhyana. - S. 372.
- β Elephant Grass (English) : Information on the GRIN website.
- β 1 2 World of cultivated plants. Reference / Baranov V.D., Ustimenko G.V. - M .: Thought, 1994. - S. 161-163. - 381 p. - ISBN 5-244-00494-8 .
- β Wulf E.V., Maleeva O.F. World resources of useful plants. - Publishing House "Science", 1969.