Common name
Feathertop
Feather Grass
White Foxtail
Long-style Feather Grass

Derivation
Pennisetum Rich., in C.H.Persoon, Syn. Pl. 1: 72 (1805); from the Latin penna (feather) and seta (bristle) referring to the long feathery bristles in the spikelets.

villosum- from the Latin villi (long weak hairs) and -osa (abundance). The plant in whole or in part covered with long hairs.

Published in
Mus. Senckenberg. 2: 134 (1837).

Habit
Perennial, mat forming or tufted. Rhizomes elongated. Stolons absent. Culms geniculately ascending or decumbent, 15–90 cm tall. Ligule a fringe of hairs. Leaf-blades flat or conduplicate, 7–15 cm long, 2–6 mm wide.

Inflorescence
Inflorescence solid, a panicle. Panicle spiciform, oblong or ovate or globose, 2–12 cm long, 1–2 cm wide. Primary panicle branches accrescent to a central axis, with lateral stumps on axis. Panicle axis angular, smooth, pilose, bearing deciduous spikelet clusters.

Spikelets
Spikelets subtended by an involucre. Involucre composed of bristles, cuneate, 40–70 mm long. Involucre base bluntly stipitate (1 mm). Involucral bristles deciduous with the fertile spikelets, numerous, with longest bristle scarcely emergent, 40–70 mm long, terete, flexible, plumose. Fertile spikelets 2-flowered, comprising 1 fertile floret, lower floret sterile or male, upper fertile, without rhachilla extension, lanceolate, dorsally compressed, cuspidate, 9–14 mm long, falling entire, deciduous with accessory branch structures.

Glumes
Glumes one (the lower absent or obscure) or two, dissimilar, thinner than fertile lemma. Lower glume oblate, 0.5–1 mm long, 5–10% of length of spikelet, membranous, 0–1-nerved. Lower glume lateral nerves absent. Lower glume apex obtuse. Upper glume lanceolate or ovate, 3.5–6 mm long, 33–50% of length of spikelet, membranous, 1–3-nerved. Upper glume apex acute or acuminate.

Florets
Basal sterile floret 1, with palea or without significant palea. Lemma of lower sterile floret ovate, 100% of length of spikelet, membranous, 7–11-nerved, scaberulous, rough on nerves, acute or acuminate. Fertile lemma lanceolate, 9–14 mm long, membranous, 5–7-nerved. Lemma margins flat. Lemma apex acute. Palea membranous. Anthers 3, 4–5 mm long. Anther tip apiculate. Styles connate below, 4 mm long, 100% of their length connate.

Continental Distribution:
Europe, Africa, Temperate Asia, Tropical Asia, Australasia, Pacific, North America, South America.

Australian Distribution:
Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania.

Western Australia: Drummond, Irwin, Menzies, Coolgardie. South Australia: Eyre Peninsula, Northern Lofty, Murray, Yorke Peninsula, Southern Lofty, Kangaroo Island, South-eastern. Queensland: Burnett, Darling Downs, Maranoa, Moreton. New South Wales: Central Coast, South Coast, Northern Tablelands, Southern Tablelands, North-Western Slopes, Central-Western Slopes, South-Western Slopes, North-Western Plains, South-Western Plains, North Far Western Plains, South Far Western Plains. Victoria: Murray Mallee, Wimmera, Wannon, Riverina, Midlands, Victorian Volcanic Plain, Otway Plain, Gippsland Plains, East Gippsland. Tasmania: Furneaux Group, East Coast.

Classification. (GPWG 2001):
Panicoideae: Paniceae

Notes
Introduced; W.A., S.A., Qld, N.S.W., A.C.T., Vic., and Tas. An ornamental grass with little or no forage importance. Flowers mostly Jan.-July.