Buffel Grass (Cenchrus ciliaris)

Ilparpa Claypans FloraAnnual Yellowtop (Senecio gregorii) Apple Bush (Pterocaulon sphacelatum) Buffel Grass (Cenchrus ciliaris) Button grass (Dactyloctenium radulans) Centipeda crateriformis Cyperus sp Goatshead Burr (Sclerolaena bicornis) Golden Everlasting (Xerochrysum bracteatum) Invisible Plant (Siemssenia capillaris) Longtails (Ptilotus polystachyus) Nardoo (Marsilea drummondii) Pink Everlasting (Schoenia cassiniana) Polycarpaea brevifolia Red Pussytail (Ptilotus polystachyus) Schenkia australis Small-Leaf Swainson-Pea (Swainsona microphylla) Tiny Purslane (Calandrinia pumila) Tiny Purslane (White form) Variable Daisy (Brachyscome ciliaris) Wahlenbergia capillaris Yellow Billybutton (Calocephalus platycephalus)

An introduced species, Buffel Grass (Cenchrus ciliaris) was inadvertently introduced to Australia in the 1870s along the routes of the Afghan cameleers. Since then it was widely introduced as food for livestock and to stabilise soils in land rehabilitation.

Buffel Grass has spread widely across the continent of Australia, even into the arid and semi-arid regions. Some ecologists have called buffel ‘the botanical equivalent of the cane toad’.

Now an aggressive plant coloniser, buffel grass has displaced native species, as well as stripping precious nutrients out of the soil. It now dominate the ground layers of Australian native plant communities, reducing native plant diversity.

Of even more concern is that buffel is highly flammable. In areas of infestation, buffel grass can burn so hot, creating wildfires that spread really rapidly, and transforming entire landscape, such as woodlands, into grasslands of a single species.

This threat to biodiversity is now recognised with strategies being attempted across Australia, such as by the (SA Arid Lands, Rangelands (WA), Fitzroy (QLD) and the NT).

There are a number of different cultivars of Buffel Grass, varying in size, flower and seed characteristics. All are tussock forming grass, with some known to live for at least 20 years.¹

Buffel grass (Cenchrus ciliaris) is a tussock grass, usually perennial that can grow to a height of 1.5 metres tall. The leaves are flat and up to 30 cm long. The seed heads form a dense, hairy cylindrical spike and vary in colour as the flowerhead ages. Buffel produce seeds quickly, with the tussock grass reshooting rapidly after a rain event, producing flowers one week later and seeds within three to four weeks.

More information in our Flora section – Grass and Grasses, Buffel Grass

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Clade: Commelinids
Order: Poales
Family: Poaceae
Subfamily: Panicoideae
Genus: Cenchrus
Species: Cenchrus ciliaris

Footnote & References

The Alice Springs Bush Regeneration Handbook, by Andy Vinter (2012), ISBN 978-0-646-58810-0, c/- Land for Wildlife and Garden for Wildlife, Alice Springs

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