Annual or perennial grasses to over 2 m tall with rhizomes rarely present. Leaf sheaths sometimes hairless. Ligule to 3 mm long, often with hairs. Inflorescence open or compact, to 45 cm long, 21 cm wide. Spikelets 4-7 mm long, paired. Glumes 3-7 mm long, 7-11 nerved, awnless. Lemma 2-5 mm long, occasionally awned, 1-2 nerved. Palea absent or reduced.
Origin probably Africa
A weedy fodder plant with poisonous cyanogenic young shoots. Widely cultivated and found on disturbed sites in all mainland Australian states. Several subspecies are recognised.
A cultigen probably domesticated in the Sudan about 3000 years ago as a derivative of S. arundinacea (Desv.) Stapf. The fourth most important grain after wheat, rice and maize; it grows well in the drier conditions of Africa, India and China. Different varieties are grown according to use: for brooms - Technicum Group; cereal - Caudatum and Durra Groups; sweet juice and forage - Saccharatum and Subglabrescens Groups.
Source: (2005). Poaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 5. Flowering plants. Monocotyledons. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
