Family: Poaceae

Common names: Guinea grass, buffalograss, yerba de Guinea, zacate Guinea, Herbe de Guinée, capime guiné.

A perennial, erect, tufted and robust grass, up to 3-4 m tall, with large, branched panicles. Stem short and stout, underground rootstock, hariy at the nodes. Leaves linear-lanceolate up to 75 cm long. Inflorescence is a conical panicle with horizontal branches, spikelets awnless with one fertile floret. The seed is 1 mm long and light brown.

It is a C4 plant, which tolerates very well hot and dry conditions. For this reason it can be found either in irrigated crop areas or dry waste places.

This perennial grass propagates via its seeds and tillers. P. maximum is also used as a forage. Repeated cuttings do not harm the vigour of the plant. However, ploughing severely reduces its stand in infested areas.

In orchards where ploughing or other mechanical operations are not possible because of possible damage to crop roots, some selective herbicides have been used effectively, e.g. glyphosate and gluphosinate-ammonium in post-emergence treatments.

P. maximum is a common plant in crop areas and waste places in several countries of West and Central Africa, tropical Latin America and Asia. Eventually P. maximum is a weed problem in citrus and banana plantations. 

Countries: Bahamas, Cameroon, Cuba

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