Eragrostis aethiopica (PROTA)

Plant Resources of Tropical Africa Introduction

List of species

General importance
Geographic coverage Africa
Geographic coverage World
Cereal / pulse
Forage / feed
Food security

Eragrostis aethiopica Chiov.

Protologue: Rob.-Brich., Somalia & Benadir: 726 (1899).

Family: Poaceae (Gramineae)

Chromosome number: 2n = 20

Origin and geographic distribution

Eragrostis aethiopica is distributed from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Djibouti southwards to South Africa. It is also found in the southern part of the Arabian peninsula.

Uses

The grain of Eragrostis aethiopica is consumed in Ethiopia. In the Turkana area of Kenya the plant is eaten by cattle, goats, sheep and donkeys, but in Ethiopia it is considered of little importance for grazing.

Description

• Annual grass up to 75 cm tall, erect or ascending; stem (culm) slender, solitary or tufted, often with pitted glands below the nodes.
• Leaves alternate, simple; leaf sheath glabrous; ligule a line of hairs; blade linear, 3–20 cm × 1–3 mm, flat or involute, glabrous.
• Inflorescence a loose, open, ellipsoid panicle up to 26 cm long, branches and pedicels slender and flexible, lowermost primary branches usually in whorls but sometimes solitary or paired.
• Spikelet linear to oblong, 1.5–7 mm × 0.5–1 mm, 4–9(–28)-flowered, with bisexual florets; glumes unequal, hyaline, the lower veinless and up to 0.5 mm long, the upper lanceolate, up to 1 mm long; lemma c. 1 mm long, thinly membranaceous, obtuse; palea with smooth keel; stamens 3, anthers c. 0.2 mm long; ovary superior, with 2 stigmas.
• Fruit a caryopsis (grain), ellipsoid, c. 0.5 mm long.

Other botanical information

Eragrostis is a large and taxonomically complex genus comprising more than 350 species mainly in tropical and subtropical regions, of which 14 are said to be endemic to Ethiopia. The diploid Eragrostis aethiopica is very similar to the tetraploid Eragrostis pilosa (L.) P.Beauv., a forage species of which the grain is sometimes eaten by humans. The former can be distinguished from the latter by its more delicate habit, smaller spikelets with blunter lemmas, smaller grain, and absence of long silky hairs in the lower panicle axis. Furthermore, Eragrostis pilosa is never glandular. In southern Africa Eragrostis aethiopica flowers from January to May.

Ecology

Eragrostis aethiopica is found up to 1600 m altitude in semi-desert and savanna areas on sand, silt or clay, e.g. in floodplain grassland, small vleis, pan edges and banks and beds of rivers, but also in disturbed habitats, such as roadsides and cultivated land. It is sometimes considered a weed, e.g. in Mozambique.

Management

Eragrostis aethiopica is collected from the wild.

Genetic resources

The National Genebank of Kenya, Kikuyu, Kenya, and the USDA-ARS Western Regional Plant Introduction Station, Pullman, Washington, United States, each have 1 accession of Eragrostis aethiopica. This species is widespread and in many areas common and thus not liable to genetic erosion.

Prospects

The role of Eragrostis aethiopica will not extend beyond being a local source of food and forage.

Major references

• Clayton, W.D., Phillips, S.M. & Renvoize, S.A., 1974. Gramineae (part 2). In: Polhill, R.M. (Editor). Flora of Tropical East Africa. Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations, London, United Kingdom. 273 pp.

• Cope, T., 1999. Gramineae (Arundineae, Eragrostideae, Leptureae and Cynodonteae). In: Pope, G.V. (Editor). Flora Zambesiaca. Volume 10, part 2. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom. 261 pp.

• Gibbs Russell, G.E., Watson, L., Koekemoer, M., Smook, L., Barker, N.P., Anderson, H.M. & Dallwitz, M.J., 1990. Grasses of Southern Africa: an identification manual with keys, descriptions, distributions, classification and automated identification and information retrieval from computerized data. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No 58. National Botanic Gardens / Botanical Research Institute, Pretoria, South Africa. 437 pp.

• Phillips, S., 1995. Poaceae (Gramineae). In: Hedberg, I. & Edwards, S. (Editors). Flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea. Volume 7. Poaceae (Gramineae). The National Herbarium, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Department of Systematic Botany, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden. 420 pp.

• Zemede Asfaw & Mesfin Tadesse, 2001. Prospects for sustainable use and development of wild food plants in Ethiopia. Economic Botany 55(1): 47–62.

Other references

• Cope, T.A., 1995. Poaceae (Gramineae). In: Thulin, M. (Editor). Flora of Somalia. Volume 4. Angiospermae (Hydrocharitaceae-Pandanaceae). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom. pp. 148–270.

• Fröman, B. & Persson, S., 1974. An illustrated guide to the grasses of Ethiopia. CADU (Chilalo Agricultural Development Unit), Asella, Ethiopia. 504 pp.

• Holm, L., Pancho, J.V. & Herberger, J.P., 1979. A geographical atlas of world weeds. John Wiley & Sons, New York, United States. 391 pp.

• IPGRI, undated. Directory of Germplasm Collections. [Internet] http://www.ipgri.cgiar.org. April 2004.

• Morgan, W.T.W., 1981. Ethnobotany of the Turkana: use of plants by a pastoral people and their livestock in Kenya. Economic Botany 35(1): 96–130.

• SEPASAL, 2003. Eragrostis aethiopica. [Internet] Survey of Economic Plants for Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (SEPASAL) database. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom. http://www.kew.org/ ceb/sepasal/. September 2003.

• USDA, ARS & National Genetic Resources Program, 2001. Germplasm Resources Information Network - (GRIN). [Internet] National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland, United States. http://www.ars-grin.gov/. August 2003.

Author(s)

• M. Brink, PROTA Network Office Europe, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 341, 6700 AH Wageningen, Netherlands

Correct citation of this article

Brink, M., 2006. Eragrostis aethiopica Chiov. In: Brink, M. & Belay, G. (Editors). PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa / Ressources végétales de l’Afrique tropicale), Wageningen, Netherlands. Accessed 18 December 2024.

• See the Prota4U database.