''Pennisetum'' is a widespread

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of plants in the grass family, 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 ...

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'' 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 ...

's Plants of the World Online.

Taxonomy

''Pennisetum'' is closely related to the genus '' Cenchrus'',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 clade. 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 Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...

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

Description

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

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

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, Australia, and

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

, with some of them widely naturalized in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

and North America, 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 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 Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''penna'' ("feather") and ''seta'' ("bristle").

Uses

The genus includes pearl millet (''P. glaucum''), an important food crop.

Napier grass ''Cenchrus purpureus'', synonym ''Pennisetum purpureum'', also known as Napier grass, elephant grass or Uganda grass, is a species of perennial tropical grass native to the African grasslands. arrell, G., Simons, S. A., & Hillocks, R. J. (2002). ...

(''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 A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture ...

“Fairy Tails’ is a recipient of the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nor ...

’s Award of Garden Merit.

Ecology

Many ''Pennisetum'' grasses are noxious weeds, including feathertop grass (''P. villosum'') and

kikuyu grass The tropical Poaceae, grass species ''Cenchrus clandestinus'' (previously Pennisetum clandestinum) is known by several common names, most often kikuyu grass, as it is native to the highland regions of East Africa that is home to the Kikuyu peop ...

(''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 herbivores, such as the

chestnut-breasted mannikin The chestnut-breasted mannikin (''Lonchura castaneothorax''), also known as the chestnut-breasted munia or bully bird (in Australia), is a small brown-backed munia with a black face and greyish crown and nape. It has a broad ferruginous breast ba ...

(''Lonchura castaneothorax''), the caterpillar 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

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. ...

e of the fly genus '' Delia''. The genus is a host of the pathogenic

fungus A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from t ...

Cochliobolus sativus The fungus ''Cochliobolus sativus'' is the teleomorph (sexual stage) of ''Bipolaris sorokiniana'' (anamorph) which is the causal agent of a wide variety of cereal diseases. The pathogen can infect and cause disease on roots (where it is known as ...

''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1762112 Poaceae genera