''Urochloa trichopus'', bushveld signal grass is a species of grass that is native to tropical and southern parts of Africa, Arabian Peninsula and western Madagascar.

Description

It is clump-forming grass that can grow up to meters tall, with alternate spaced leaves. The leaf sheath is

glabrous Glabrousness () is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes, or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of a plant or animal, or be due to loss because of a physical condition, ...

(hairless) to slightly pubescent (having small hairs). The leaf blade is linear, acuminate (tapering to a long point) and long and wide. The flower consists of 3–20

racemes A raceme () or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the shoo ...

carried on a central axis long. They are solitary, ovate shaped

spikelets A spikelet, in botany, describes the typical arrangement of the inflorescences of grasses, sedges and some other monocots. Each spikelet has one or more florets. The spikelets are further grouped into panicles or spikes. The part of the spikelet ...

on a narrowly winged

rachis In biology, a rachis (from the [], "backbone, spine") is a main axis or "shaft". In zoology and microbiology In vertebrates, ''rachis'' can refer to the series of articulated vertebrae, which encase the spinal cord. In this case the ''rachi ...

(shaft). They are 2-flowered with lower floret male and upper

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

. They have 3

stamens The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filamen ...

. The ovary has 2 plumose (having feathers or featherlike growths) stigmas. The seed capsule is a strongly flattened

caryopsis In botany, a caryopsis () is a type of simple fruit—one that is monocarpellate (formed from a single carpel) and indehiscent (not opening at maturity) and resembles an achene, except that in a caryopsis the pericarp is fused with the thin s ...

(grain). It flowers and fruits between June and August.

Distribution

It is native to the African countries of Angola, Botswana, Burkina, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia (and

Caprivi Strip The Caprivi Strip, also known simply as Caprivi, is a geographic salient protruding from the northeastern corner of Namibia. It is bordered by Botswana to the south and Angola and Zambia to the north. Namibia, Botswana and Zambia meet at a sing ...

), Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa (within the Cape Provinces, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and the Northern Provinces), Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zaïre and Zimbabwe. In Arabia it is found in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. It has been found in

Telangana state Telangana is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated in the Southern India, south-central part of the Indian subcontinent on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, ele ...

, India in 2021. It is found at an altitude of up to above sea level, in semi-arid climates, in grassland and savanna woodland. It is also found in disturbed locations and as an arable weed.

Taxonomy

It was previously known as ''Urochloa mosambicensis'' (with common names of ''sabi grass'' and ''gonya grass''). Urochloa trichopus It was first published and described as ''Urochloa pullulans'' in D.Oliver & auct. suc. (eds.), Fl. Trop. Afr. vol.9 on page 589 in 1920, before later being called ''Urochloa trichopus''. It is class as ''

Least Concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

'' on the Red List of South African Plants.

Uses

The seed of ''Urochloa trichopus'' can be gathered for food, such as in

Kordofan Kordofan ( ') is a former province of central Sudan. In 1994 it was divided into three new federal states: North Kordofan, South Kordofan and West Kordofan. In August 2005, West Kordofan State was abolished and its territory divided between N ...

(Sudan), Tanzania, Botswana and Zimbabwe. While, in Botswana it is

ground Ground may refer to: Geology * Land, the solid terrestrial surface of the Earth * Soil, a mixture of clay, sand and organic matter present on the surface of the Earth Electricity * Ground (electricity), the reference point in an electrical circ ...

into a flour, which can then be as a cereal, which can be mixed with water, milk or melon juice and made into cake. It is as good fodder in India.

References

{{taxonbar, from=Q15512853 Panicoideae Plants described in 1920 Flora of West Tropical Africa Flora of West-Central Tropical Africa Flora of Northeast Tropical Africa Flora of East Tropical Africa Flora of South Tropical Africa Flora of Southern Africa Flora of Yemen Flora of Saudi Arabia Flora of Madagascar Taxa named by Christian Ferdinand Friedrich Hochstetter