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Urochloa brizantha
Also called Palisade signalgrass, Bread Grass, Palisade Signal Grass, Signal Grass, Bread Signal Grass, Broad Leaved False Paspalum, Common Signal Grass
Palisade grass (Urochloa brizantha) is a tall, rhizomatous perennial forage grass from tropical and southern Africa, widely grown as livestock pasture and sometimes in gardens. It is best suited to warm, seasonally dry climates and needs fertile soil with nitrogen supplementation.
Urochloa brizantha (syn. Brachiaria brizantha) is a species of grass known by the common name palisade grass. It is often used as a forage for livestock. Other common names include palisade signal grass, bread grass, Mauritius grass, Surinam grass, large-seeded millet grass, big ashama, Ceylon sheep grass, and St. Lucia grass.
The grass can cause a photosensitization syndrome in animals marked by skin lesions, facial edema, and ruminal stasis. The plant contains saponins which accumulate in the animal liver as sapogenin glucuronide crystals, resulting in liver damage. Neurological symptoms such as ataxia can also occur. This is sometimes a fatal condition. The poisoning is more likely to occur in fields that have not been recently grazed.
The native range of the grass is tropical and southern Africa. It has been purposely introduced to many other parts of the world, including South America and the Pacific. It is the main forage used in Brazil, in an area larger than 70,000 km2. It is adapted to grassland and woodland habitat. It is a warm-season grass that tolerates only light frost. It survives drought better than many other tropical grasses. It will grow in many soil types, but not infertile soils, and it usually requires supplemental nitrogen in cultivation. It can stand some shade and some varieties can tolerate mild flooding.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Urochloa brizantha by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
