Quick Facts

Quick facts

• Annual Mission Grass (Cenchrus pedicellatus) is an annual grass up to 1.5 m tall.
• It grows in disturbed sites such as degraded pastures, roadsides and along streams and is a weed in grain sorghum crops.
• It is native to tropical Africa and is naturalised in the tropical parts of Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland.
• It spreads by its light and fluffy seeds that can be transported by wind, water, animals and machinery.
• Annual Mission Grass can be controlled by grubbing and herbicide application.

What Does It Look Like?

What is it?

Annual Mission Grass (Cenchrus pedicellatus) is a tufted annual with slender stems that grows up to 1-1.5 m tall. The stems are more or less straight, but sometimes rooting at the lower nodes. The leaf blades are up to 45 cm long, up to 1.8 cm wide and hairy or hairless. There is a ring of hairs at the base of the leaf blades (Miller 2006; Northern Territory Department of Land Resource Management 2012).

The spikelike flowering stems appear well above the leaves and are 5-15 cm or sometimes up to 20 cm long. They are dense, cylindrical and cream-coloured with a purple tinge. The seeds have bristles and dense woolly hairs (Dhanji 2009).

For further information and assistance with identification of Annual Mission Grass contact the herbarium in your state or territory.

Flower colour

Cream-coloured to purplish.

Growth form (weed type/habit)

Grass

Where it currently grows? Preferred habitat

Annual Mission Grass grows on disturbed sites such as degraded pastures, cultivated land, roadsides and waste sites (Northern Territory Department of Land Resource Management 2012). Since it grows well on soils with good moisture conditions, it also tends to invade creeklines (Dhanji 2009). It often colonises areas where the perennial Mission Grass, Cenchrus polystachios, has previously been eradicated (Setterfield et al. 2006).

Are there similar species?

Annual Mission Grass can be hard to distinguish from perennial Mission Grass, Cenchrus polystachios and other related species, such as the Feathergrasses. During the wet season it can also be confused with the native annual Sorghum intrans (Miller 2006).

Why Is It A Weed?

What are its impacts?

Annual Mission Grass is a problematic weed in grain sorghum crops. It invades disturbed areas, degraded pastures and waste sites, but can also invade native vegetation (CRC for Australian Weed Management 2008; Northern Territory Department of Land Resource Management 2012).

How does it spread?

The seeds of Annual Mission Grass are light and fluffy and can be transported by humans, birds, other animals, vehicles and machinery, as well as by water and wind. They can also be spread as a contaminant in hay and grains (Smith 2002; CRC for Australian Weed Management 2008; Northern Territory Department of Land Resource Management 2012).

What is its history in Australia?

Annual Mission Grass was probably first introduced from Uganda to Australia in the 1940s to be tested as a pasture grass. In the 1950s it had spread from trial sites. By 1970, it had already spread over large parts of northern Australia (Setterfield et al. 2006).

How To Manage It?

Best practice management

Small isolated infestations in native vegetation should be treated before large infestations. Appropriate weed hygiene has to be practised to prevent the spread of seeds to other uninfected areas (Miller 2006; CRC for Australian Weed Management 2008).

Seedlings and small plants of Annual Mission Grass can be dug out. This should be done before the plant has mature seeds. Annual Mission Grass can also be sprayed with herbicides. Herbicide treatment should be applied when the growth rate of the plant is high, but before seeding. In native vegetation, care should be taken to minimise damage to native plants (CRC for Australian Weed Management 2008).

Please see the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority for chemical information http://www.apvma.gov.au .

After eradication, follow-up controls in the following years are necessary to prevent regrowth or invasion of other weeds (CRC for Australian Weed Management 2008).

Does it have a biological control agent?

NO

When does it grow? (lifecycle/growth calendar)

Annual Mission Grass flowers early in the dry season, from April to June (Northern Territory Department of Land Resource Management 2012). It produces many seeds from April to July that normally germinate in the following wet season. They do not form a long-lived soil seed bank (CRC for Australian Weed Management 2008; Setterfield et al. 2006).

Where Is It Found?

Which states and territories is it found?

NT, QLD, WA

What areas within states and territories is it found?

In Australia, Annual Mission Grass occurs in the northern part of Western Australia, in many parts of the Northern Territory and in northern and eastern Queensland. It is a weed in many areas of the tropics. In India, Annual Mission Grass is used as a pasture grass (CRC for Australian Weed Management 2008).

Where does it originate?

Annual Mission Grass is native to tropical Africa (Northern Territory Department of Land Resource Management 2012).

National And State Weed Listings

Is it a Weed of National Significance (WONS)?

NO

Where is it a declared weed?

Not declared in any state or territory

Government weed strategies and lists – Weeds Australia

Is it on the National Alert List for Environmental Weeds?

NO

Government weed strategies and lists – Weeds Australia

Is it on the Agricultural Sleeper List?

NO

Government weed strategies and lists – Weeds Australia

Names And Taxonomy

Main scientific name

Cenchrus pedicellatus

Other scientific names (synonyms)?

• Pennisetum pedicellatum Trin.
• Pennisetum polystachion (L.) Schult. (misapplied by Hussey, B.M.J., Keighery, G.J., Cousens, R.D., Dodd, J.L. & Lloyd, S.G. 1997, Western Weeds: a guide to the weeds of Western Australia Edn 1. 64.)

Does it have other known common name(s)?

Hairy Fountain Grass, Annual Mission Grass, Deenanth, Annual Pennisetum, Denath Grass, Curteis’ Curse, Berrimah Buffel, Kyasuma Grass