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Graminae
Common names
Brown Rhodes grass (Zimbabwe).
Description
A tufted glaucous, shortly stoloniferous perennial; culms usually
30- 60 cm high, sheaths strongly compressed, the blades folded, blunt at
the apex; spikes 4-7 mm, brown; spikelets 7-22 mm long; two-flowered, the
upper floret usually male; upper glume short-awned (Chippendall, 1955).
Distribution
Southern, Central, East and north-east Africa, naturalized
in Florida.
Season of growth
Summer.
Altitude range
1 000-2 000 m.
Rainfall requirements
About 550 mm (Bogdan & Pratt, 1967).
Soil requirements
It is adapted to loose sandy loams, loams and black cracking
clays (Bogdan & Pratt, 1967), also red loams and red earths.
Land preparation for establishment
A well-prepared seed-bed is preferable, but in reseeding programmes
a rough disc-harrowing will suffice.
Sowing methods
Usually broadcast.
Sowing depth and cover
Sow on the surface and roll or cover with passage of bushes.
Sowing time and rate
In the wet season, at about 175 g per hectare (Bogdan &
Pratt, 1967).
Number of seeds per kg.
770 000 to 880 000 spikelets with one seed each (Bogdan &
Pratt, 1967).
Response to defoliation
It can stand heavy grazing (Roberts, 1970a & b).
Toxicity
D.C. Steyn has recorded the presence of prussic acid (Chippendall
& Crook, 1976).
Palatability
It is well grazed. In Bankerveld, 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).
Chemical analysis and
digestibility
The herbage is leafy and contains about 10 percent crude protein
in the dry matter at early flowering (Bogdan & Pratt, 1967).
Natural habitat
Dry grassland, open woodland, by roadsides and as a weed.
Tolerance to flooding
It withstands seasonal waterlogging.
Genetics and reproduction
2n=36 (Fedorov, 1974).
Seed production and harvesting
Seed formation is erratic, and considerable effort may be required
to collect large quantities of seed. The seed is small.
Economics
A valuable, nutritious grass in the natural veld in southern
Africa, Kenya and Rwanda (Bouxin, 1975; Kruger & Edwards, 1972; Bogdan
& Pratt, 1967).
Animal production
It has never been used for reseeding, but Bogdan and Pratt
(1967) recommend its trial in Kenya's medium-rainfall eastern areas.
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