Digitaria decumbens

Pangola grass, pongola grass

A perennial with semierect stems up to 1 m long, forming open turf. Grows best on moist fertile well-drained soils with annual rainfall above 800 mm. Adapts to a wide variety of soils, and tolerates drought and a high level of acidity, but not prolonged waterlogging, alkaline conditions or copper deficiency. Used primarily for pasture; withstands trampling and overgrazing, but does not persist under continuous close grazing. Poor nutritive value when stems have elongated. Aggressive against weeds. Can be grown with Trifolium repens or Lotononis bainesii provided that little nitrogen fertilizer is applied. Fertilization with nitrogen and rotational grazing greatly improve the nutritive value (ref. 85). The mean crude protein content of 610 samples of pangola grass was as follows: when fertilized with nitrogen, 13.2%; with rotational grazing, 10.5%; with constant grazing, 5.6%; and ungrazed, 4.9%.