Sorghum plumosum

Sorghum plumosum, the plume sorghum, is a tall tussocky perennial grass in the Poaceae family native to northern Australia and parts of New Guinea, where it is a characteristic component of seasonally inundated tropical savanna grasslands. The plant typically grows one to three metres tall, forming dense clumps from a stout, knotty rhizome. The flat, linear leaves are up to a metre long and one to three centimetres wide, with rough margins and a prominent white midrib. From the wet season into early dry season the plant produces large, soft, open, plume-like panicles up to fifty centimetres long, the slender branches densely covered with golden-bronze to purplish silky hairs that give the inflorescence its feathery appearance. The paired spikelets bear short awns; one is sessile and fertile, the other pedicellate and sterile. The species provides important wet-season grazing for native wildlife and livestock.