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Cenchrus americanus; photograph Fabrício Mil Homens Riella, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF CC BYFabrício Mil Homens Riella, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF

Cenchrus americanus (L.) Morrone

Pearl millet; African Millet; American fountaingrass; Babala

Poaceae · Benin, Burkina +12

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Cenchrus americanus, photograph Fabrício Mil Homens Riella, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCenchrus americanus, photograph Michael Ellis, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCenchrus americanus, photograph Michael Ellis, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCenchrus americanus, photograph Michael Ellis, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCenchrus americanus, photograph kent ozment, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFCenchrus americanus, photograph kent ozment, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF 24 photographs ›
Habitat figuresfrom few records
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
11.6°C
Record low 8.7 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
41°C
May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
388mm
4 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
36–46DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
A rainy season, July to September, neither the cool nor the warm half of the year. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

From few records: 5 records in 5 grid cells. The records.

Summary

Pearl millet (Cenchrus americanus, commonly known as the synonym Pennisetum glaucum) is the most widely grown type of millet. It has been grown in Africa and the Indian subcontinent since prehistoric times. The center of diversity and suggested area of domestication for the crop is in the Sahel zone of West Africa.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Pearl millet", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a rainy season with no name: 70% of the median year's rain (313 mm of 390 mm) falls in July to September, whose mean temperature, 29.8 °C, is within half a degree of the year's, 29.6 °C, so it is neither the cooler nor the warmer part of the year. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January to March.

Rain

390 mm in the median year at the habitat, 313 mm of it July to September. Wettest month August at 148 mm, driest months (4 at 0 mm); 6 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 363 mm to 896 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 388 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 390 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 36 to 46 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 31, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 11.6 °C, the absolute minimum 8.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 44.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 16.3 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 15.3 °C to 19.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 40.6 °C in May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 11.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 30 to 58% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -4 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

From few records: this habitat climate is read from 5 records in 5 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Cenchrus americanus through the yearWarmest month May, mean daily high 41 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 16.3 °C; 390 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°50°44.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER8.7° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 36–46RH 30–58%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 5 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C31 / 30–3434 / 33–3637 / 37–3940 / 39–4141 / 38–4139 / 34–3935 / 31–3634 / 29–3436 / 30–3638 / 34–3835 / 35–3632 / 32–34
Night °C16 / 15–1919 / 17–2122 / 21–2426 / 25–2728 / 26–2828 / 25–2825 / 23–2624 / 23–2525 / 23–2524 / 23–2520 / 20–2117 / 16–19
Rain mm00 / 0–11 / 1–62 / 1–3415 / 12–8549 / 43–129103 / 101–183148 / 134–26062 / 60–15610 / 9–370 / 0–20 / 0–2
DLI37 / 36–3840 / 40–4144 / 43–4446 / 42–4644 / 41–4544 / 38–4442 / 33–4340 / 31–4141 / 34–4240 / 38–4039 / 38–3936 / 35–37
RH %32 / 32–3330 / 30–3130 / 29–3633 / 32–4641 / 39–5448 / 47–5854 / 54–6358 / 58–6654 / 53–6543 / 41–5634 / 33–4033 / 33–35
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 5 grid cells holding the 5 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1513:3596 (14.325, -0.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 8.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 11.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 44.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 5 distinct grid cells holding 5 of the 5 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1513:3596 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 14.50_0.000, lapse-corrected -4 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 275 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBenin, Burkina, Nigeria, Togo, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Zaïre, Chad, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia · introduced: Great Britain, Sardegna, Spain, Italy, Turkey-in-Europe, Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Canary Is., Gambia, The, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Sudan, Tanzania, Botswana, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Provinces, Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, Rodrigues, Amur, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Kuril Is., Magadan, Primorye, Sakhalin, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, Transcaucasus, Afghanistan, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Turkey, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, China North-Central, Mongolia, Japan, Korea, Kazan-retto, Nansei-shoto, Ogasawara-shoto, Assam, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Andaman Is., Myanmar, Vietnam, Jawa, New Zealand North, Fiji, New Caledonia, Marianas, Hawaii, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Southwest, El Salvador, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina South, Argentina Northwest, Chile Central, Chile North, Paraguay · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker10.77, 0.4 · in the densest population, 210 records (36% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 585 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 5 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 584 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 827 records outside the WCVP native range not used. Under a dozen records behind the climate. 580 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 585 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Cenchrus americanus, photograph 1did not loadCenchrus americanus, photograph 2did not loadCenchrus americanus, photograph 3did not loadCenchrus americanus, photograph 4did not loadCenchrus americanus, photograph 5did not loadCenchrus americanus, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Fabrício Mil Homens Riella, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Michael Ellis, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (3); kent ozment, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Senegalia laeta Senegalia laeta Fabaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Marco SchmidtNymphoides ezannoi Nymphoides ezannoi Menyanthaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Kurt Stüber Ipomoea vagans Convolvulaceae Bauhinia rufescens Bauhinia rufescens Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Sayee GirdhariBalanites aegyptiaca Balanites aegyptiaca Desert date Photo: CC BY, Karim HaddadAlysicarpus ovalifolius Alysicarpus ovalifolius Alyce clover Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Cenchrus 18 in the reference

Cenchrus alopecuroides Cenchrus alopecuroides Black Fountaingrass Photo: CC BY, ValCenchrus caudatus Cenchrus caudatus African Fountain Grass Photo: CC BY, Leon PerrieCenchrus ciliaris Cenchrus ciliaris Buffel-grass Photo: CC BY, Matt BergerCenchrus clandestinus Cenchrus clandestinus Kikuyu grass Photo: CC0, author not statedCenchrus × cupreus Cenchrus × cupreus Poaceae Photo: CC BY, Татьяна МаксимоваCenchrus echinatus Cenchrus echinatus Southern sandbur Photo: CC BY, zebedeugalinhaCenchrus flaccidus Cenchrus flaccidus Flaccid grass Photo: CC BY-SA, Josep Gesti Cenchrus geniculatus Napier Millet Cenchrus latifolius Cenchrus latifolius Uruguay fountain grass Photo: CC BY, jodepagecorneyCenchrus longisetus Cenchrus longisetus Feathertop Photo: CC BY, PierreCenchrus longispinus Cenchrus longispinus Field sandbur Photo: CC0, author not statedCenchrus orientalis Cenchrus orientalis Oriental fountain grass Photo: CC BY, Astra all 19 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Alopecurus typhoides; Andropogon racemosus; Cenchrus paniceus; Cenchrus pycnostachyus; Cenchrus spicatus and 80 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Poaceae
Described by
(L.) Morrone
Native to
Benin, Burkina, Nigeria +11
Wild records
585 in range · 584 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 5 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (3 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a herbarium; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 14.50_0.000, lapse-corrected -4 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21Wikipedia's article Pearl millet, the English article of this species' Wikidata item (Q50840653)
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 105 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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