Barner grass

Cenchrus purpureus, commonly known as Napier grass, elephant grass or Uganda grass, is a tall, robust, tufted perennial grass of the family Poaceae, native to sub-Saharan Africa and widely cultivated throughout the tropics and subtropics as a forage and bioenergy crop. The plant forms dense clumps from short, knotty rhizomes and produces erect, leafy culms reaching 2–4 m and sometimes up to 7 m in height, with cane-like, glabrous to softly hairy stems 1–3 cm in diameter. The linear leaf blades are 30–120 cm long and 1–5 cm wide, flat, with a prominent pale midrib, scabrid margins and a fringed membranous ligule. The inflorescence is a dense, cylindrical, spike-like panicle 8–30 cm long, ranging in colour from yellowish to purplish, in which the small spikelets are subtended by bristly involucres of fine, often purple-tinged bristles. The species reproduces mostly vegetatively and is valued for high biomass yield, palatability to livestock and tolerance of poor soils.