Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Urochloa brizantha; photograph (c) Marcelo Venturi, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) CC BY-SA(c) Marcelo Venturi, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · observed growing wild · 2025-03-10

Urochloa brizantha (A.Rich.) R.D.Webster

Palisade signal grass; Bread grass; Palisade grass; Signal grass

Poaceae · Benin, Burkina +37

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Urochloa brizantha, photograph (c) Marcelo Venturi, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Urochloa brizantha, photograph (c) Marcelo Venturi, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Urochloa brizantha, photograph (c) Marcelo Venturi, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Urochloa brizantha, photograph (c) Marcelo Venturi, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Urochloa brizantha, photograph (c) Marcelo Venturi, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Urochloa brizantha, photograph (c) Marcelo Venturi, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) 43 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
10.6°C
Record low 6.7 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
32°C
Feb and Mar at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,277mm
9 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
28–41DLI
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
Wet winters: the rain comes May to September (the habitat's months, not shifted), read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Urochloa brizantha (syn. Brachiaria brizantha) is a species of grass known by the common name palisade grass. It is often used as a forage for livestock. Other common names include palisade signal grass, bread grass, Mauritius grass, Surinam grass, large-seeded millet grass, big ashama, Ceylon sheep grass, and St. Lucia grass.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Urochloa brizantha", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (994 mm of 1,347 mm) falls in May to September, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 21.3 °C against a yearly mean of 22.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

1,347 mm in the median year at the habitat, 994 mm of it May to September. Wettest month August at 253 mm, driest months (2 at 4 mm); 2 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 858 mm to 1,988 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,277 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,347 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 41 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 23, 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 10.6 °C, the absolute minimum 6.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 17.3 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 7.3 °C to 21.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 31.8 °C in February and March (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 10.6 °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: 43 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 +45 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, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Urochloa brizantha through the yearWarmest months February and March, mean daily high 32 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 17.3 °C; 1,347 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, southern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°36.2° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER6.7° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 28–41RH 43–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 99 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 / 26–3432 / 26–3632 / 25–3729 / 24–3628 / 22–3427 / 20–3125 / 20–2925 / 22–2926 / 24–3027 / 24–3129 / 24–3430 / 25–34
Night °C18 / 15–2119 / 16–2220 / 16–2419 / 14–2619 / 10–2418 / 8–2317 / 7–2217 / 9–2117 / 11–2218 / 13–2218 / 15–2118 / 16–21
Rain mm4 / 0–2079 / 0–18764 / 16–147122 / 41–183145 / 16–257165 / 9–289218 / 7–329253 / 8–341213 / 19–319120 / 64–21930 / 6–1434 / 0–176
DLI39 / 35–4141 / 35–4440 / 33–4336 / 29–4033 / 26–3731 / 23–3528 / 24–3228 / 25–3432 / 29–3834 / 31–4137 / 33–4138 / 34–39
RH %43 / 37–6545 / 35–6552 / 41–6560 / 52–6463 / 55–6665 / 55–6867 / 54–6967 / 54–7067 / 54–6863 / 55–6654 / 47–6546 / 40–64

Records on both sides of the equator: the 11 cells at least 10° north of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 99 cells that remain: the 28 at least 10° south and the 71 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 99 grid cells holding the 115 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 1655:3871 (7.225, 13.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 6.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 10.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.2 °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 99 distinct grid cells holding 115 of the 130 in-range records on the southern side of the equator (11 cells poleward of 10° north, 28 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 1655:3871 (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 7.00_13.750, lapse-corrected +45 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1114 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, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Rwanda, Zaïre, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Madagascar, Seychelles, Yemen · introduced: Mauritius, Taiwan, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, West Himalaya, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Cocos (Keeling) I., Jawa, New Guinea, Queensland, Western Australia, Fiji, Society Is., Hawaii, Texas, Florida, Mexico Central, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Honduras, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Galápagos, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, 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 marker-3.1, 30.15 · in the densest population, 168 records (24% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial or rhizomatous geophyte” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 714 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 115 of them in the land cells it reads, of 130 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 679 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 3 km away. 401 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 584 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 714 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Urochloa brizantha, photograph 1did not loadUrochloa brizantha, photograph 2did not loadUrochloa brizantha, photograph 3did not loadUrochloa brizantha, photograph 4did not loadUrochloa brizantha, photograph 5did not loadUrochloa brizantha, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Marcelo Venturi, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (6).

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

Podangis dactyloceras Podangis dactyloceras Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Orchi Chlorophytum filipendulum Asparagaceae Dorstenia astyanactis Moraceae Cyperus richardii Cyperus richardii Cyperaceae Photo: CC BY, Reanne ("Bean") DunnFicus glumosa Ficus glumosa Hairy Rock Fig Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloParacostus englerianus Paracostus englerianus Costaceae Photo: CC0, Daderot

Other Urochloa 9 in the reference

Urochloa dictyoneura Urochloa dictyoneura Creeping signal grass Photo: CC BY, Luis RecaldeUrochloa distachyos Urochloa distachyos Armgrass millet Photo: CC BY, Kevin FaccendaUrochloa eminii Urochloa eminii Congo grass Photo: CC BY-SA, Nicollas MichelsUrochloa fusca Urochloa fusca Browntop signal grass Photo: CC0, author not statedUrochloa mutica Urochloa mutica Para grass Photo: CC0, author not statedUrochloa panicoides Urochloa panicoides Sharp-flowered Signal-grass Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloUrochloa ramosa Urochloa ramosa Browntop millet Photo: CC BY, Kevin FaccendaUrochloa reptans Urochloa reptans Sprawling signal grass Photo: CC0, author not statedUrochloa texana Urochloa texana Texas millet Photo: CC BY, Linda Jo Conn

Names & registers

Also known as Brachiaria brizantha; Brachiaria brizantha subsp. angustifolia; Brachiaria brizantha subsp. ciliata; Brachiaria brizantha var. angustifolia; Brachiaria brizantha var. ciliata and 12 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Poaceae
Described by
(A.Rich.) R.D.Webster
Native to
Benin, Burkina, The Gambia +36
Wild records
714 in range · 679 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 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
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; 6 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium, 4 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 7.00_13.750, lapse-corrected +45 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 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 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
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 131 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…