Brachiaria radicans Napper

Graminae

Synonyms

B. Latifolia.

Common names

Tanner grass (United States).

Description

A stoloniferous perennial, 103-150 cm high, with glabrous, geniculate culms, rooting at the lower nodes, and lanceolate leaf-blades up to 15 cm long by 12 mm wide. Six to ten racemes with a wavy rachis 1.5 mm wide and glabrous, biseriate, subacute spikelets 4 mm long (Napper, 1965).

Distribution

Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, introduced to the Americas.

Season of growth

Summer.

Altitude range

1 300-2 000 m in Tanzania.

Rainfall requirements

In Puerto Rico it grows in a rainfall range of 1 500 - 2 000 mm of evenly distributed rain per year

Drought tolerance

It does not tolerate drought

Soil requirements

In the humid tropics of Puerto Rico, deep red acid ultisols with a pH of 4.8 are common with high free iron and aluminium oxides.

Land preparation for establishment

A well-prepared, deep seed-bed is required.

Sowing methods

The cuttings are planted in rows 1 m apart and covered lightly with soil to a depth of 5-8 cm.

Sowing time and rate

Sow at the beginning of the rainy season in spring in Puerto Rico, using 2 500-4 500 kg/ha of mature stem-cuttings.

Dry-matter and green-matter yields

At Orocovis, Puerto Rico, Tanner grass yielded 12 880 kg/ha of green matter three months after 15 120 kg from star grass (Cynodon nlemfuensis), planting, compared with 9 520 kg from Brachiaria ruziziensis and 6 720 kg from pangola grass (Digitaria decumbens) (Vicente-Chandler et al., 1974), showing that it is quick to establish.

Toxicity

Some anaemia has been reported in horses and sheep grazing Tanner grass during the winter in Brazil (Rosenfeld et al, 1976)

Natural habitat

Swampy and seasonally flooded grassland.

Fertilizer requirements

In the eastern Llanos of Colombia on the oxisols at Carimagua, Spain (1979) obtained major increases in stolon length per plant from additions of phosphorus, and in the number of stolons produced by B. radicans with the addition of potash. It is able to fix nitrogen. Three hundred and thirty kg/ha of a 15:5:10 fertilizer is applied two weeks after planting in Puerto Rico (Vicente- Chandler et al., 1974). Liming to reduce acidity and prevent aluminium and manganese toxicity may require 2 250-4 500 kg/ha.

Links for the genus:

• Grass genera of the world: Information about botany, ecology etc. of the Eriochloa genus; link to photograph
• Genetic improvement of Bracharia

Further reading

Spain, 1979; Vicente-Chandler et al, 1974.