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View crop Data sheet EcoPortAcroceras macrum
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| DESCRIPTION: It is a slender, erect to prostrate grass reaching 40-110 cm in height, with extensively creeping, rather wiry rhizomes. Leaves bright green, glabrous or scantily hairy, 8-20 cm long, 5-12 mm wide. Panicle mostly 15-25 cm long. USE: Cultivated for hay, silage and as permanent pasture. GROWING PERIOD: Perennial. It provides the best average yield the first 3 years. COMMON NAMES: Nile grass. FURTHER INF: It is native of eastern and southern Central Africa, where it grows naturally in seasonally flooded valley bottoms, along rivers, in swamps and damp grassland. It can be found in both tropical and subtropical zones of Africa, from sea level to 2000 m. Occurs in areas with 625-2000 mm annual rainfall and average annual temperatures between 16-26°C. It grows in poorly drained soils with textures ranging from sandy to heavy clays, with an apparent preference for the former. Has been successfully cultivated on moist, poorly or well-drained soils, with pH from 4.3-7.3. It is susceptible to iron deficiency. It also grows well in well-drained soils provided periods of moisture deficit are relatively short. Remains green with light frost but tops killed by heavy frost. Photosynthesis pathway C3. It can become a weed and it is difficult to plough out. Dry matter yields are usually 4-12 t/ha, but from as low as 2, and up to 18 t/ha. | Sources |
| Grassland Index Skerman P 1990 pp 181-184 [DRA, RAIN, TEXT, FER, PHO, LIMIT] Rehm S 1991 pp 404 [DRA, USE] Duke J 1975 pp 5 [PH, RAIN, TEMP] Roecklein J 1987 pp 168 [USE] Ibrahim K 1987 pp 64 Bogdan A 1977 pp 31-32 [DRA, RAIN] Tropical forages 2005 |