SCIENTIFIC NAME: Sporobolus creber
CATEGORY: C4 perennial
IDENTIFICATION TIPS
- Tufted, warm season perennial grass to 80cm tall
- Leaves are pale green, largely hairless, quite tough and waxy. Ligule has a hairy rim
- Seedhead is a long, narrow, spike-like panicle to 40cm long. The short branches are pressed against the main stem and the main stem is visible along much of its length
- Flowers from spring to summer
CLIMATIC & SOIL REQUIREMENTS
- Tends to be more prevalent in years with good summer rain
- Found on different soil types depending on moisture availability. In higher rainfall areas it is more common on lighter, well drained soils. In drier areas, it is more common along sandy creek-lines or on heavy clays of the plains
- Generally found in native pastures or sown pastures that have reverted back to native species and is very quick to colonise bare patches
- Moderate drought tolerance, but frost sensitive
GRAZING & NUTRITIONAL VALUE
- Moderate grazing value
- No nutritional figures available. Those given are for the extremely similar S. elongatus
- Digestibility ranges from 47-63 %
- Crude protein 4.8-12.4 %
MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
- Usually a minor component of pastures. However, on lighter textured, low fertility soils it can become abundant in good rainfall years (usually where it is set stocked)
- A mostly summer/autumn growing species that frosts off during winter. The amount of green leaf carried is usually low and very dependent on summer rainfall
- Low to moderate yielding and shows little response to increased fertility
- It has moderate palatability and digestibility when young and leafy, but rapidly produces stout, fibrous stems during the growing season that makes it unpalatable
- Favoured by set stocking if more desirable species are present, as it will be sparingly grazed by stock. As stocking rates increase, it will also become more abundant as ground cover diminishes
Similar plants:
- There are no similar species