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Anthephora pubescens

Authority Nees Family Synonyms Common names borseltjiegras, wool grass Editor Ecocrop code 3256

Notes
DESCRIPTION: A leafy tussock grass with unbranched culms to 30-50 or even 200 cm, short sturdy rhizomes, and long, narrow basal leaves. Leaf blades green to blue-green, flat, linear, 10-15 cm long and 3-5 mm wide, tapering to a soft point. USES: For warm season light grazing. It is extremely palatable and during heavy grazing tillers may be pulled from the ground. Also providing useful standover feed into the cool season. Sown in rows on sandy red soils as a pasture/crop rotation. Makes high quality hay. GROWING PERIOD: Perennial, growing in the summer. COMMON NAMES: Wool grass. FURTHER INF: It is widely distributed in Africa from 17ºN in the Sudan and Eritrea to 29ºS in South Africa, and to 2100 m in Namibia. It is a climax species, found in semi-arid and arid grassland and savannah, often on hillsides. Occurs in areas with rainfall from 175-950 mm, but most common between 350-500 mm and with average annuial temperatures between 16-28ºC, with heavy frosts at the lower end of the range. It is extremely drought tolerant, but intolerant of waterlogging and flooding. Common on sandy or gravelly soils, sometimes loams, with pH from 5.5-7.5. Grows on infertile soils and is more tolerant of low phosphorus levels than many other grasses. Fire has little adverse effect on regrowth. Yields may vary between 1.3-4 t/ha.
Sources
Grassland Index Skerman P 1990 pp 191-192 [TEXT, RAIN, DRA, PH, FER] Ibrahim K 1987 pp 75 IBPGR 1984 pp 115 Tropical forages 2005 Steven R and Staberg P 2005