Name
Stinking Grass or Smelly Grass
Latin Name
Bothriochloa radicans
Uses
It is an unpalatable grass which is poorly grazed due to the aromatic leaves. It is, however, grazed to some extent when there are not many other palatable grasses available. It contains an essential oil with about 51 ingredients.
Description
A perennial tufted grass with a spreading, shrub-like growth form (not erect). The leaves and inflorescences are aromatic when crushed. The leaves are blue-green. Utilization by grazers occurs only when the grass is still young.
Habitat
Stinking Grass grows in the drier basalt areas and prefers heavy, clay soils. It does, however, utilise other habitat types, such as soil near vleis, on stony slopes and around termite mounds. It occurs from southern Africa northwards as far as Uganda, the Sudan and Ethiopia.
Flowers
October - April in South Africa
Field Notes
Stinking Grass is so named due to its aromatic leaves that make it almost unpalatable
