Gramineae

Eustachys mutica auctt.

Red Rhodes grass, Bruinhoenderspoor, Brown Rhodes grass (Zimbabwe).

Chloridoideae; Chlorideae. There are 10 species of Eustachys occurring in tropical America, West Indies, tropical and southern Africa of which 1 species is indigenous to southern Africa.

Occurs from southern Africa through tropical Africa to Arabia. In South Africa it is found in Fynbos, Savanna and Grassland.

An erect or geniculately ascending tufted, rhizomatous perennial grass that grows to a height of 200-950 mm tall. The leaves are blue-green and concentrated mainly at the base. The leaf blades are 20-180 mm long and 2-5 mm wide. The rhizomes are short and compact. The leaf sheaths are strongly compact, the lower ones are interwoven and have shades of purple. The leaf blades are folded with blunt apices and are hairless with a prominent midrib. The ligule is a fringe of hairs. The inflorescence is digitate with 4-7 sturdy brown spikelet-bearing axes, which are persistent. The spikelets are solitary, biseriate and golden-brown, disarticulating above the glumes. The lower glume is ovate and boat-shaped, the upper glume oblong-elliptic with an awn 0.5-1.5 mm long. The lemma is 1.5-2.4 mm long with or without a mucro up to 1 mm long. According to Bogdan and Pratt (1967) it has 770,000 - 880,000 spikelets per kilo containing one seed each. Very closely related to Chloris, from which it may be distinguished by having broader glumes, a short awn on the upper glumes and dark-brown almost awnless female-fertile lemmas.

A very palatable climax grass. However, the leaf production is not very high and it tends to be less palatable in lower rainfall, warmer areas. It can stand heavy grazing (Roberts, 1970a & b). It is well grazed. In South Africa, E. paspaloides fertilized with a complete fertilizer was the most sought-after species, with 70 percent utilization against 70 percent for Themeda triandra and 30 percent for Heteropogon contortus (Kruger & Edwards, 1972).

D.C. Steyn has recorded the presence of prussic acid (Chippendall & Crook, 1976). The herbage is leafy and contains about 10 percent crude protein in the dry matter at early flowering (Bogdan & Pratt, 1967).

Chromosome base number, x = 10 (Fedorov, 1974 quoted in Skerman and Riveros,1990 indicated that 2n = 36).

C₄ photosynthetic pathway.

None reported and considered to be non-toxic.

Occurs mostly in summer to autumn rainfall areas where the annual rainfall may be from 300-800 mm per annum. Decreases in abundance very quickly in rangeland that is overgrazed due to its high palatability. It is often found in undisturbed places and occurs as a climax species. Altitude range: 1000-2000 m. It withstands seasonal waterlogging.

Grows in stony and sandy soil, and sometimes in clayey soil. According to Bogdan & Pratt, 1967, it is adapted to loose sandy loams, loams and black cracking clays (also red loams and red earths.

A well-prepared seed-bed is preferable, but in reseeding programmes a rough disc-harrowing will suffice. It is usually broadcast on the surface and rolled or covered with passage of bushes.

Broadly summer-growing species that flowers from October to May.

None known.

Moderate to slow-growing.

Acocks, J.P.H. 1988. Veld types of South Africa (3rd edn.). Mem. Bot. Surv. S. Afr. No 28. Government printer, Pretoria.

Bogdan, A.V. and D.J. Pratt (1967) Reseeding denuded pastoral land in Kenya. Nairobi, Republic of Kenya, Min. Agric. Anim. Husb.

Chippendall, L.K.A. and A.O. Crook (1976) 240 grasses of southern Africa. Salisbury, Rhodesia, M.O. Collins (Pvt) Ltd, Irwin Press (Pvt) Ltd.

Gibbs-Russell, G. E., Watson, L., Koekemoer, M., Smook, L. Barker, N. P., Anderson, H. M., Dallwitz, M. J. 1989. Grasses of southern Africa. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa, No. 58, National Botanical Institute, Pretoria.

Kruger, J.A. and P.J. Edwards (1972). Utilization and relative palatability of different grass species. Proc. Grassl. Soc. South Afr., 7:146-155.

Roberts, O.T. (1970a). Pasture improvement and research in Fiji. South Pacific Bull., 20:35-37.

Roberts, O.T. (1970b). A review of pasture species in Fiji. I. Grasses. Trop. Grassl., 4:129-137.

Skerman, P.J. and Riveros, F. (1990). Tropical Grasses. FAO, Rome, 832 p.

Van Wyk, E. & Van Oudtshoorn, F. 1999. Guide to grasses of southern Africa. Briza Publications, Arcadia, South Africa.