Pennisetum villosum
Encyclopedia
Pennisetum villosum is a species of grass
known by the common name feathertop grass. It is native to northeastern Africa and parts of the Arabian Peninsula
, and it is grown elsewhere as an ornamental plant
. It can sometimes be found growing wild where it has escaped cultivation. This is a perennial grass growing in rhizomatous
clumps, producing erect stems up to about 75 centimeters tall. The inflorescence
is a panicle
of clustered spikelets surrounded by a cloudlike mass of plumose white bristles up to 5 centimeters long.
Poaceae
The Poaceae is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of flowering plants. Members of this family are commonly called grasses, although the term "grass" is also applied to plants that are not in the Poaceae lineage, including the rushes and sedges...
known by the common name feathertop grass. It is native to northeastern Africa and parts of the Arabian Peninsula
Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula is a land mass situated north-east of Africa. Also known as Arabia or the Arabian subcontinent, it is the world's largest peninsula and covers 3,237,500 km2...
, and it is grown elsewhere as an ornamental plant
Ornamental plant
Ornamental plants are plants that are grown for decorative purposes in gardens and landscape design projects, as house plants, for cut flowers and specimen display...
. It can sometimes be found growing wild where it has escaped cultivation. This is a perennial grass growing in rhizomatous
Rhizome
In botany and dendrology, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes...
clumps, producing erect stems up to about 75 centimeters tall. The inflorescence
Inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...
is a panicle
Panicle
A panicle is a compound raceme, a loose, much-branched indeterminate inflorescence with pedicellate flowers attached along the secondary branches; in other words, a branched cluster of flowers in which the branches are racemes....
of clustered spikelets surrounded by a cloudlike mass of plumose white bristles up to 5 centimeters long.