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Cenchrus setosus; photograph Kevin Faccenda, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF CC BYKevin Faccenda, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF

Cenchrus setosus Sw.

West Indian pennisetum; Feather pennisetum; Feathery pennisetum; Mission grass

Poaceae · Cape Verde, Benin +47

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Cenchrus setosus, photograph Mason Brock, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFCenchrus setosus, photograph Mason Brock, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFCenchrus setosus, photograph Mason Brock, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFCenchrus setosus, photograph Mason Brock, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFCenchrus setosus, photograph 葉子, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFCenchrus setosus, photograph 葉子, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF 24 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
17.1°C
Record low 14.3 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
34°C
Apr at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,456mm
9 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
29–40DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  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 sharp rainy season, May and July to October (the habitat's months, not shifted), in a year of even temperature. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Cenchrus setosus, the feathery pennisetum, is a species of grass in the family Poaceae, first described in Prodr. Veg. Ind. Occ. (1788). It is native to Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and South and Southeast Asia, extending from India to Indo-China, and has been widely introduced to tropical and subtropical regions across the Americas, Pacific Islands, and parts of Asia. It is sometimes cultivated as a pasture or fodder grass. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Cenchrus setosus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,024 mm of 1,401 mm) falls in May and July to October. The temperature curve is flat, 3.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

1,401 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,024 mm of it May and July to October. Wettest month August at 240 mm, driest month January at 7 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 869 mm to 2,533 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,456 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,401 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: 29 to 40 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 25, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 17.1 °C, the absolute minimum 14.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.4 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 19.6 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 14.8 °C to 24.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 33.5 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 17.1 °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: 54 to 67% 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 -157 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

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Cenchrus setosus through the yearWarmest month April, mean daily high 34 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 19.6 °C; 1,401 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.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°34.4° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER14.3° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 29–40RH 54–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 113 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 °C30 / 27–3431 / 28–3733 / 29–3734 / 29–3832 / 28–3730 / 27–3329 / 27–3129 / 26–3129 / 27–3129 / 27–3229 / 27–3429 / 26–34
Night °C20 / 15–2521 / 16–2523 / 19–2625 / 21–2625 / 21–2724 / 20–2623 / 19–2623 / 20–2523 / 20–2523 / 19–2521 / 17–2520 / 15–24
Rain mm7 / 0–5814 / 1–4137 / 5–9082 / 21–160176 / 52–262172 / 71–351200 / 103–414240 / 111–397228 / 144–376180 / 57–32456 / 2–2229 / 0–142
DLI34 / 32–3938 / 35–4140 / 37–4440 / 37–4436 / 32–4232 / 26–3830 / 26–3429 / 25–3330 / 27–3430 / 28–3731 / 28–3831 / 28–37
RH %56 / 35–6454 / 34–6355 / 39–6459 / 46–6663 / 51–6864 / 56–7165 / 61–7167 / 63–7267 / 62–7165 / 59–6960 / 44–6757 / 38–65

Records on both sides of the equator: the 58 cells at least 10° south of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 113 cells that remain: the 77 at least 10° north and the 36 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 113 grid cells holding the 118 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 1886:3904 (-4.325, 15.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 14.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 17.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.4 °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 113 distinct grid cells holding 118 of the 186 in-range records on the northern side of the equator (77 cells poleward of 10° north, 58 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1886:3904 (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 -4.50_15.000, lapse-corrected -157 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 281 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.
NativeCape Verde, Benin, Burkina, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Burundi, Cabinda, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Rwanda, Zaïre, Chad, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Aldabra, Comoros, Madagascar, Réunion, Seychelles, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Andaman Is., Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam · introduced: Chagos Archipelago, Hainan, China Southeast, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, South China Sea, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Philippines, Sumatera, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Northern Territory, Queensland, Fiji, Gilbert Is., Niue, Marquesas, Caroline Is., Marcus I., Marianas, Marshall Is., Wake I., Hawaii, Florida, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Bermuda, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South · 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 marker10.93, 1.446 · in the densest population, 193 records (29% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual or perennial” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 674 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 118 of them in the land cells it reads, of 186 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 545 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 10 km away. 705 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 488 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 674 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 setosus, photograph 1did not loadCenchrus setosus, photograph 2did not loadCenchrus setosus, photograph 3did not loadCenchrus setosus, photograph 4did not loadCenchrus setosus, photograph 5did not loadCenchrus setosus, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Mason Brock, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF (4); 葉子, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF (2).

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

Cassia bakeriana Cassia bakeriana Fabaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedMammea siamensis Mammea siamensis Calophyllaceae Photo: CC BY, Utain PummarinSindora siamensis Sindora siamensis Fabaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedMomordica charantia Momordica charantia Balsam pear Photo: CC BY, John P FrielHopea ferrea Hopea ferrea Dipterocarpaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Raffi KojianDialium cochinchinense Dialium cochinchinense Velvet tamarind Photo: CC BY, Utain Pummarin

Other Cenchrus 18 in the reference

Cenchrus alopecuroides Cenchrus alopecuroides Black Fountaingrass Photo: CC BY, ValCenchrus americanus Cenchrus americanus Pearl millet Photo: CC BY, Fabrício Mil Homens RiellaCenchrus 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 stated all 19 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Cenchrus polystachios subsp. setosus; Pennisetum parviflorum subsp. majus; Pennisetum polystachion subsp. setosum; Pennisetum polystachion subsp. viviparum; Pennisetum setosum. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipedia

The record

Family
Poaceae
Described by
Sw.
Native to
Cape Verde, Benin, Burkina +46
Wild records
674 in range · 545 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; 26 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (19 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium, 6 at a zoo; 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 -4.50_15.000, lapse-corrected -157 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
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 109 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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