Brachiaria brizantha (A. Rich.) Stapf
Palisade grass (Samoa), signal grass (East Africa), St Lucia grass (Queensland), Ceylon sheep grass (Sri Lanka), upright brachiaria (Zimbabwe), bread grass (South Africa), estrella de Africa, pasto alambe (Latin America).
Perennial up to 120 cm high, with stout erect culms and broadly lanceolate leaf-blades. Two to five racemes, up to 15 cm long, with two rows of almost sessile, overlapping, rounded spikelets, 4-6 mm long on the underside. It differs from B. decumbens in that the spikelets have a sub-apical fringe of long purplish hairs, and the spikelets are longer than those of B. decumbens.
Native to tropical Africa but now introduced into most tropical countries.
Spring to autumn.
Sea-level to 3 000 m.
It requires a rainfall generally in excess of 500 mm.
It tolerates a wide range of soils and is tolerant of acid conditions.
It can spread slowly by seed as the seed ages to break its dormancy.
A well-prepared seed-bed is preferable.
It can be propagated vegetatively by sods, root pieces and stems.
It will stand heavy grazing. In Sri Lanka, Sivalingam (1964) recommended a cutting interval of 30 days when fertilized with nitrogen at 0, 45, 132 and 396 kg/ha.
It can be heavily grazed if used as a monospecific sward and regularly fertilized with nitrogen. If grown with a legume the grazing system must favour the legume and adequate phosphorus must be maintained.
B. brizantha will not tolerate fire. In Zambia annual burning of dominantly Hyparrhenia grassland for three years reduced the B. brizantha cover from 0.38 to 0.09 percent (Brockington, 1961). Selection 665 at CIAT, Quilichao, Colombia has good resistance to burning, but burning is not recommended (CIAT, 1978).
With Alysicarpus vaginalis, fertilized with 88 kg N and 88 kg P2O5/ha it yielded 6 750 kg DM/ha from three cuts (Fernando, 1961). In Fiji over a three-year period it yielded an average of 7 850 kg DM/ha with a crude protein content of 7.6 percent (Roberts, 1970). It yielded 16 800 kg/ha green matter in Tanzania. In Sri Lanka B. brizantha gave herbage dry-matter yields per year ranging from 10 368 to 17 377 kg/ha at nitrogen applications ranging from 56 to 280 kg/ha (Appadurai, 1975).
In the United Republic of Tanzania it has made useful silage (van Rensburg, 1952) and in Sri Lanka it is useful both for hay and silage (Bor, 1960). In Burundi a mixture of Eragrostis curvula (at least 50 percent), B. brizantha and Setaria sphacelata is recommended for silage (Scaillet, 1965).
At the Queensland Agricultural College, Lawes, Queensland, Australia, crossbred wether sheep grazing on a vigorous sward of Brachiaria brizantha growing on a black clay soil developed severe photosensitization and icterus, marked by drooping ears, swelling of the subcutis of the face and eyelids, and congested, yellowish mucous membranes. The sheep rapidly lost condition and died. In these animals the skin over the muzzle, ears, and eyelids was necrotic and the conjunctival sac filled with purulent exudate with consequent blindness (Briton & Paltridge, 1941).
Its productiveness, drought resistance, ability to spread and suppress weeds and its ability to grow in shade.
Its tendency to produce monospecific swards. Its low seed production.
It grows well into the winter, being green when other tropical grasses are brown and dry.
It will survive frosts.
It can be used in pastures at high altitudes in Burundi (Scaillet, 1965).
It tolerates shade under coconuts well in Sri Lanka (Bor, 1960).
It is attacked by some insect pests.
It is very palatable, with a good leaf/stem ratio.
It has good nutritional value. Göhl's (1975).
Grassland valleys and open woodlands.
It will not tolerate flooding (Bor, 1960; CIAT, 1978).
It performs quite well without fertilizer and was found to be one of the best grasses (B. brizantha 665) under low nitrogen and low phosphorus at CIAT, Quilichao, Colombia. However, it responds well to fertilizer, producing over 4 000 kg DM/ha with no nitrogen but adequate phosphorus, and high yields with complete fertilizer.
In Sri Lanka, Fernando (1961) grew it in association with Alysicarpus vaginalis and Centrosema pubescens. High nitrogen applications decreased the proportion of legumes, while phosphorus applications increased the proportion. In Malaysia Stylosanthes guianensis and centro have been successful (Vendargon, 1964). However, if fertilizer mixtures are not balanced in favour of legumes the grass will dominate.
Selection 665 at CIAT, Colombia has good seed production. Seed remains viable for about three years (Jones, 1973).
B. brizantha has shown to be an outstanding pasture for leys in Kenya (Bogdan, 1959), Madagascar (Birie-Habas, 1959; Granier & Lahore, 1961), the United Republic of Tanzania, Fiji (Payne et al., 1955), Sri Lanka (Panabokke, 1959), Nigeria (Foster & Munday, 1961), Uganda (Bredon & Horrell, 1962), Burundi, Zaire (Scaillet, 1965) and other countries.`
In a grazing trial in Sri Lanka, Fernando (1961) obtained a live- weight gain of 464 kg/ha from grass alone, 647 kg/ha from a Pueraria phaseoloides/Brachiaria brizantha sward and 631 kg/ha from a Centrosema pubescens/B. brizantha mixture over a 260-day season.
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It has been used successfully in Australia (Queensland) and India (Gandhi, 1957; Patil & Ghosh, 1963).
It is fairly drought tolerant (Bor, 1960; CIAT, 1978).