Common Name:

General Information

Andropogon gayanus is a clump-forming, perennial grass with with leaves up to 1 metre long and culms from 150 - 250cm tall and around 6mm in diameter. It can form a clump around 100cm in diameter[].
Best known as a tropical grazing grass, the plant is also used as a source of material for thatching and weaving, as well as sometimes being planted for erosion control and soil restoration.

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

Tropical Africa - widespread in semi-arid and seasonal rainfall areas, from the Sahel to Namibia, Botswana and Mozambique.

Habitat

Open woodland and savannah[].

Properties

Weed Potential	Yes
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Evergreen Perennial
Height	2.00 m
Cultivation Status	Cultivated, Wild

Cultivation Details

A plant of the tropics and warm subtropics, where it can be found at elevations below 2,000 metres, though mostly below 1,000 metres. It prefers a mean annual rainfall within the range 750 - 1,260mm, but can tolerate 400 - 1,400mm[]. It can tolerate up to 2,500mm[]. It grows best in areas with seasonal rainfall and a dry season of 3 - 6 months[]. The plant is sensitive to lower temperatures; the leaves are killed by frost and growth is restricted where the mean minimum temperature of the coldest month is below 4.4°c[]. Optimal flowering is at 25°c[].
Grows best in full sun[]. Succeeds on a wide range of soils, including those of low fertility, from sands to black cracking clays, but prefers sandy clays of medium to high fertility[]. Succeeds in infertile, acid soils, tolerating a pH range from 4 - 7.5[, ]. Established plants are drought tolerant and some forms can also tolerate seasonal inundation of the soil[, ].
Grown in many areas for pasture, the plant has escaped from cultivation and invaded native areas. It is a vigorous, robust grass which can form dense stands, excluding native species. In the Northern Territory, Australia, it has invaded riparian vegetation (creek banks and flood-plain fringes), degraded areas, roadsides, pastures and Eucalyptus savannah, in areas where annual rainfall exceeds 600 mm[]. It has also become naturalized in Brazil[]. A highly productive grass that increases fuel loads, cures later than the native annual grasses and produces intense, late dry season fires which seriously damage native woody species[].
The plant has three types of roots - most are fibrous roots close to the surface that probably produce the vigorous early growth; thick cord roots which store starch and anchor the tussock; and vertical roots that can extract water at depth during the dry season[].
Plants are tolerant of grass fires[].
A short-day plant with a critical day length for flowering between 12 and 14 hours[].

Edible Uses

None known

Medicinal

None known

Agroforestry Uses:

The plant has been used for reclaiming badly overgrazed and eroded land[]. Ten metre wide strips of the grass have been planted in fields of millet to reduce wind erosion occurring at the start of the wet season. The strips captured more than 2,000 tonnes of sand per hectare within 3 years[].
When used in a rotation, especially in impoverished land, the plant has been found to build soil fertility[].
It can be planted along the banks of streams etc to control erosion[].

Other Uses

The stems are used for weaving coarse grass mats and for thatching[, ].

Propagation

Seed - sow in situ at a depth of 10 - 25mm[].
Division of root clumps[].

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