Elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum)

Rumput gajah or elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum) is a plant species in Poaceae, a large and highly nutritious grass that is usually used for animal feed including cattle, goats, elephants, has resistance in the sun, has many varieties and cultivars.

P. purpureum grows upright like sugar cane and is up to 5 m high, 3 cm in diameter and easy to breed. The round stems, woody and hard, covered with leaf shields and haired, have up to 20 segments to grow new shoots that will become new stems.

Ribbon-shaped leaves, length 30-120 cm, width less than 3 cm, thin as paper. The upper surface is green, the lower surface is pale green, both surfaces and margins are rough by hair. A single bone in the middle, large and white.

Flowers grow in long bunches and erect with a golden color, grow at the tip of the uppermost stem, the seeds will have contents when growing at an altitude of more than 1000 meters. Leaves and stems contain 19.9% dry matter, 10.2% crude protein, 1.6% fat, 34.2% crude fiber, 11.7% ash and 42.3% extract material without nitrogen.

Elephant grass is very adaptive and productivity remains high in a variety of soil textures and marginal land, but optimal production is 60-70% soil moisture, pH 6.5, 1000 mm/year rainfall and short days with critical photoperiods 13-12 hour.

Rumput gajah has several cultivars including Muaklek, Bana, Taiwan A148, Common, Wruk wona, Tifton and Kampheng san. Many are cultivated for the purposes of animal feed, fiber production materials, soil erosion barriers and hedges.



Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Poales
Family: Poaceae
Subfamily: Panicoideae
Tribe: Paniceae
Genus: Pennisetum
Species: Pennisetum purpureum