''Pennisetum'' is a widespread

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

of plants in the

grass family Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns and ...

, native to

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

and warm

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout t ...

regions of the world. They are known commonly as fountaingrasses (fountain grasses).''Pennisetum''.
Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS).''Pennisetum''.
The Jepson eFlora 2013. ''Pennisetum'' is considered a synonym of ''

Cenchrus ''Cenchrus'' is a widespread genus of plants in the grass family. Its species are native to many countries in Asia, Africa, Australia, the Americas, and various oceanic islands. Common names include buffelgrasses, sandburs, and sand spur “sti ...

'' in

Kew Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is a ...

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. It was launched in March 2017 with the ultimate aim being "to enable users to access information on all the world's known seed-bearing plants by ...

Taxonomy

''Pennisetum'' is closely related to the genus ''

'',Martel, E., et al. (2004)
Chromosome evolution of ''Pennisetum'' species (Poaceae): implications of ITS phylogeny.
''Plant Systematics and Evolution'' 249(3-4), 139-49. and the boundary between them is unclear.Wipff, J. K
''Pennisetum'' Rich.
The Grass Manual. Flora of North America. ''Cenchrus'' was derived from ''Pennisetum'' and the two are grouped in a

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

. Some species now in ''Pennisetum'' were once members of ''Cenchrus'', and some have been moved back. A main morphological character used to distinguish them is the degree of fusion of the bristles in the

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

, but this is often unreliable. In 2010, researchers proposed to transfer ''Pennisetum'' into ''Cenchrus'', along with the related genus ''

Odontelytrum ''Cenchrus'' is a widespread genus of plants in the grass family. Its species are native to many countries in Asia, Africa, Australia, the Americas, and various oceanic islands. Common names include buffelgrasses, sandburs, and sand spur “s ...

''.Chemisquy, M. A., et al. (2010)
Phylogenetic studies favour the unification of ''Pennisetum'', ''Cenchrus'' and ''Odontelytrum'' (Poaceae): a combined nuclear, plastid and morphological analysis, and nomenclatural combinations in ''Cenchrus''.
''Annals of Botany'' 106(1), 107-30. The genus is currently not accepted as separate from ''Cenchrus'' in Kew's Plants of the World Online database.

Species

Pennisetum pedicellatum in Hyderabad, AP W IMG 1342

The World Checklist of Selected Plant Families lists the following species as synonyms of ''

'':

Description

As currently envisioned, ''Pennisetum'' is a genus of 80 to 140 species. The various species are native to Africa, Asia,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, and Latin America, with some of them widely naturalized in Europe and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, as well as on various oceanic islands. They are annual or perennial grasses. Some are petite while others can produce stems up to 8 meters tall. The

is a very dense, narrow

panicle A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a panicle are of ...

containing fascicles of spikelets interspersed with bristles. There are three kinds of bristle, and some species have all three, while others do not. Some bristles are coated in hairs, sometimes long, showy, plumelike hairs that inspired the genus name, the Latin ''penna'' ("feather") and ''seta'' ("bristle").

Uses

The genus includes

pearl millet Pearl millet (''Cenchrus americanus'', commonly known as the synonym ''Pennisetum glaucum''; also known as 'Bajra' in Hindi, 'Sajje' in Kannada, 'Kambu' in Tamil, 'Bajeer' in Kumaoni and 'Maiwa' in Hausa, 'Mexoeira' in Mozambique) is the most w ...

(''P. glaucum''), an important food crop. Napier grass (''P. purpureum'') is used for grazing livestock in Africa. Several species are cultivated as ornamental plants, notably ''P. advena, P. alopecuroides, P. orientale, P. setaceum, ''and'' P. villosum''. The cultivar “Fairy Tails’ is a recipient of the Royal Horticultural Society’s

Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established annual award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. History The Award of Garden Merit ...

Ecology

Many ''Pennisetum'' grasses are

noxious weed A noxious weed, harmful weed or injurious weed is a weed that has been designated by an agricultural or other governing authority as a plant that is injurious to agricultural or horticultural crops, natural habitats or ecosystems, or humans or liv ...

s, including feathertop grass (''P. villosum'') and kikuyu grass (''P. clandestinum''), which is also a popular and hardy turf grass in some parts of the world. The herbage and seeds of these grasses are food for

herbivore A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthpart ...

s, such as the chestnut-breasted mannikin (''Lonchura castaneothorax''), the

caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder Sym ...

of the butterfly ''

Melanitis phedima ''Melanitis phedima'', the dark evening brown, is a species of butterfly found flying at dusk. The flight of this species is erratic. They are found in south and southeast Asia. Description Wet-season form: Male. Upperside dusky fuliginous-br ...

'', and the larvae of the

fly Flies are insects of the Order (biology), order Diptera, the name being derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwing ...

genus ''

Delia Delia is a feminine given name, either taken from an epithet of the Greek moon goddess Artemis, or else representing a short form of '' Adelia'', '' Bedelia'', ''Cordelia'' or '' Odelia''. Meanings and origins According to records for the 1901 ...

''. The genus is a host of the

pathogenic In biology, a pathogen ( el, πάθος, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of") in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a germ ...

fungus '' Cochliobolus sativus''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1762112 Poaceae genera