Panicum pansum
Rendle
PoaceaeSeeds/Nuts
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(c) Marco Schmidt, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA)
(c) Marco Schmidt, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA)
iNaturalist · cc-by-nc-sa
(c) Marco Schmidt, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA)
(c) Marco Schmidt, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA)
iNaturalist · cc-by-nc
(c) Chabi Mongo Yves, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
(c) Chabi Mongo Yves, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
What to Eat
Edible parts: Seeds, Cereal
The seeds are eaten as a cereal grain.
Where to Find It
A tropical plant. It grows in waste places and wooded grassland in West Africa.
Africa, Angola, Burkina Faso, Central Africa, Congo, East Africa, Ghana, Guinea, Guinée, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, Tanzania, West Africa, Zambia,
Countries: Angola, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Benin, Botswana, Congo (DRC), Central African Republic, Congo (Republic), Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Comoros, Liberia, Lesotho, Libya, Morocco, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Somalia, South Sudan, Sao Tome & Principe, Eswatini, Chad, Togo, Tunisia, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe
How to Identify
An annual grass. It grows 20-100 cm high. The leaf blades are narrow and 8-30 cm long by 5-7 mm wide. The flower panicle is 15-40 cm long. It is branched and spreading.
Other Information
It is occasionally harvested as food.
Notes
There are about 500 Panicum species.
Names & Synonyms
Ilulo kputo, Tobaku
Panicum kerstingii Mez
References (6)
- Abbiw, D.K., 1990, Useful Plants of Ghana. West African uses of wild and cultivated plants. Intermediate Technology Publications and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. p 26
- Burkill, H. M., 1985, The useful plants of west tropical Africa, Vol. 2. Kew.
- Dalziel, 1948, (As Panicum kerstingii)
- Fowler, D. G., 2007, Zambian Plants: Their Vernacular Names and Uses. Kew. p 71
- Gallagher, D. E., 2010, Farming beyond the escarpment: Society, Environment, and Mobility in Precolonial Southeastern Burkina Faso. PhD University of Michigan.
- World Checklist of Useful Plant Species 2020. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
