''Melinis minutiflora'', commonly known as molasses grass, is a species of

grass Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family (biology), family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and spe ...

. It is a perennial grass native to

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

, where it occurs in disjunct populations (an arc from central

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

in western central africa, the areas around

Ruwenzori Mountains The Rwenzori (also known as the Ruwenzori, Rwenzururu or Rwenjura) are a mountain range, range of mountains in eastern equatorial Africa, located on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The highest peak of the Ruw ...

and

Mount Kenya Mount Kenya (Meru people, Meru: ''Kĩrĩmaara,'' Kikuyu people, Kikuyu: ''Kĩrĩnyaga'', Kamba language, Kamba: ''Ki nyaa'', Embu language, Embu: ''Kĩ nyaga'') is an extinct volcano in Kenya and the Highest mountain peaks of Africa, second-highe ...

in eastern Africa. Its seeds are dispersed by wind. Molasses grass usually grows to be thirty to sixty inches tall, and it forms mats when its long, slender stems lay on top of each other in layers up to four feet deep. Molasses grass can spread up other plants, using them as support, like a vine. It has fragrant foliage and colorful inflorescences. It blooms for short periods with differing bloom times depending on where the grass is located. Molasses grass generally flowers in the southern hemisphere between April and June and in the

northern hemisphere The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined by humans as being in the same celestial sphere, celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the Solar ...

in November.

Role as a non-native species

It was introduced to tropical areas such as

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

for livestock feed, and is now naturalized in some areas. Around 1812, molasses grass took root in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

and spread through abandoned coffee plantations. Similarly, around 1900, molasses grass was introduced in Hawaii for cattle grazing. In Hawaii, it continued to spread, though its spread was hindered by feral goats. It is considered an invasive species in many parts of the world, including some Pacific Islands and South America. Molasses grass plays a large role in

fire ecology Fire ecology is a scientific discipline concerned with the effects of fire on natural ecosystems. Many ecosystems, particularly prairie, savanna, chaparral and coniferous forests, have evolved with fire as an essential contributor to habitat vit ...

in the regions where it grows. In the Brazilian

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

(''

Cerrado The Cerrado () is a vast ecoregion of Tropics, tropical savanna in central Brazil, being present in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Maranhão, Piauí, Bahia, Minas Gerais, São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Paraná ...

'') this species is invasive and dominant due to the increased frequency of fire. When a wild fire occurs, molasses grass is very quick to colonize the disturbed area. Examples of this are seen in almost every region where molasses grass is found, including Australia, Brazil and Hawaii, where molasses grass even increases the risk of fire in the areas in which it establishes. Molasses grass increases the likelihood of fires where it has established because it is brittle and burns easily. This cycle where molasses grass establishes, burns easily, then reestablishes and burns again is known as the grass/fire cycle, and it undermines native plants' ability to grow and thrive in their native environment. One result of this cycle is a drop in biodiversity in the affected area.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q6812536 Panicoideae Flora of Africa