Index / Search / Pennisetum purpureum
§1 Plant
Pennisetum purpureum Schumach.
vernacular elephant grass — species · Poaceae
§2Habit & range
Habit and range
- Growth habit
- Graminoid
- Duration
- Perennial
- Group
- Monocot
- Family
- Poaceae Barnhart
- Genus
- Pennisetum
§2a
Native status, by region
- HI Hawaii Introduced
- L48 Lower 48 States Introduced
- PB Pacific Basin (except Hawaii) Introduced
- PR Puerto Rico Introduced
- VI U.S. Virgin Islands Introduced
§2b
County-level range
· 29 counties across 1 state§3Cultivation specs · USDA
Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.
§3a
Tolerances
- Drought
- High
- Shade
- High
- Moisture use
- Medium
- Fire
- High
- Salinity
- None
- Anaerobic
- None
- CaCO₃
- Medium
- Hedging
- None
§3b
Climate & soil
- Cold tolerance
- 17 °F minimum
- Frost-free days
- 365 min.
- Precipitation
- 36–100 in/yr
- pH range
- 5.2–8.7
- Root depth
- 14 in min.
- Fertility need
- High
- Soil texture
- coarse, medium, fine
§3c
Form & growth
- Growth form
- Rhizomatous
- Growth rate
- Rapid
- Lifespan
- Long
- Mature height
- 10 ft
- Foliage texture
- Coarse
- Foliage colour
- Green
- Porosity (summer)
- Dense
- Porosity (winter)
- Dense
- Flower colour
- Yellow
- Fruit colour
- Brown
- Fire resistant
- No
- N fixation
- None
- Toxicity
- None
§3d
Reproduction
- Bloom period
- Mid Summer
- Seed abundance
- Low
- Seed begins
- Summer
- Seed ends
- Fall
- Spread rate
- None
- Stratify
- No
- Seeds / lb
- 1,402,000
- Propagation
- seed, cuttings, sprigs
§3e
Use & availability
- Commercial availability
- Routinely Available
- Nursery stock
- No
- Browse palatability
- Medium
- Graze palatability
- Medium
- Palatable, human
- No
- Protein potential
- Medium
- Lumber
- No
- Christmas tree
- No
§4Counties, by state
Recorded in 29 counties across 1 state.
Florida view state ↗ 29 I ▾
- Alachua 12001
- Brevard 12009
- Broward 12011
- Charlotte 12015
- Collier 12021
- Duval 12031
- Glades 12043
- Hardee 12049
- Hendry 12051
- Hernando 12053
- Highlands 12055
- Hillsborough 12057
- Lake 12069
- Lee 12071
- Leon 12073
- Manatee 12081
- Martin 12085
- Miami-Dade 12086
- Okaloosa 12091
- Okeechobee 12093
- Orange 12095
- Osceola 12097
- Palm Beach 12099
- Pinellas 12103
- Polk 12105
- Santa Rosa 12113
- Sumter 12119
- Volusia 12127
- Walton 12131
§5Sources & provenance
USDA PLANTS
Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.
plants.usda.gov/PEPU2 ↗GBIF Backbone
Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.
gbif.org/species/5828220 ↗Record version
Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:
usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26
fetched 2026-05-26T08:39:52Z