I BULLETIN 72, HAWAII EXPERIMENT STATION 
time Napier grass is widely used in Florida, both as silage and as a 
green-fodder crop. Its use in the States, however, is limited by the 
length of the growing season. It is only in the frost-free sections that 
it finds its most efficient use, for the true perennial nature of the grass 
is one of its very desirable characteristics. 
Introductions into Hawaii were made, both from the Bureau of 
Plant Industry, United States Department of Agriculture, and from 
the Florida Experiment Station. After repeated trials at the Hawaii 
Experiment Station and at the University of Hawaii (7) had shown its 
adaptability, its high nutritive value as a forage, and its exceptional 
yielding ability, the grass was distributed to interested ranchers and 
dairymen throughout the Territory. At first it was grown mainly in 
small areas and used as a soiling crop. Later it was found to possess 
desirable pasture possibilities and larger acreages were planted. One 
ranch has had as much as 600 acres planted to pure stands of Napier 
grass, all of which was used for pasturing beef cattle and horses. 
At the present time Napier grass finds wide use both as a pasture 
crop for beef cattle and as a soiling crop for dairy cows. For low to 
medium elevations where the climatic conditions are favorable, there 
is probably no forage crop now under cultivation that will produce 
roughage of good quality as economically as will Napier grass. Its 
distinctive features are aggressiveness, long life, drought resistance, 
high productivity, and ability to recover after being cut. The acreage 
of the grass could well be extended on many of the ranches in the 
Territory. 
DESCRIPTION 
Napier grass is a leafy, branching, vigorous-growing perennial, 
attaining, under favorable conditions, a height of 10 to 15 feet at 
maturity. It has a strong, extensive fibrous root system which enables 
the plant to become quickly and permanently established in the soil. 
The leaf blades are usually 1 to 1% inches wide and 2 to 3 feet long. 
The leaf carries a conspicuous ligule consisting of a fringe of fine hairs 
about three-eighths of an inch in length. Tillering in this species is 
profuse, and often as many as 50 to 100 stalks are produced from a 
single plant. When the plants approach maturity numerous fine 
branches appear, growing out from the leaf axils of the main stems. 
These branches as well as the main stems bear terminal condensed 
panicles or seed heads which are golden yellow to tawny in color and 
from 5 to 10 inches in length. The inflorescence is made up of a large 
number of spikelets borne singly or in groups of 2 or 3 on short 
branchlets, the branchlets being arranged spirally on the central axis. 
Each spikelet consists usually of a single fertile terminal floret and a 
second empty lemma or sterile floret, together with a pair of outer 
glumes of unequal length. The group of spikelets on each branchlet is 
subtended by an involucre of bristles which are longer than the 
spikelets and arranged in a whorl. This involucre of bristles falls 
with the matured spikelets and evidently aids in the dissemination of 
seed by the wind and by animals. 
It has been observed that when blooming begins the stigmas emerge 
from 2 to 4 days before the stamens. This, it seems, would tend to 
promote cross-pollination and may account in part for some of the 
partial sterility observed in this species. A botanical description of 
Pennisetum purpureum has been given by Hitchcock (4, p. 679), an 
