Aussie Finch Forum

I found a very small patch, 5 x 2m, of green panic growing along a fence line. In November the opportunity happened, @ 0600 with a pick and bags in hand, I transferred / borrowed / dug out a small amount of the plants including the roots and dirt. Arriving home @0645 with 2 full bags of root stock material. Transferred the plants into their garden bed, no fertilizer used tap water and some rain.


The pick is just covering one plant



The plants have grown to about 1.8m high and now going to seed.


The extra large wheelie bin gives an indicator of these plants potential height.


Check the size of the seed heads out.


I gave a friend some small plants which also have grown, planted inside his aviaries, up to 2.1 m high. Unfortunately the council have now poisoned and cut back the original site.

I would say it's a very old established plant and has toughened up for its survival in that area. I have found that the older the plant gets the tougher it gets,the plants i have are around 15 years old and get cut back to around 300mm high every year after the have finished seeding. I have a few plants growing in the lawn that get mowed quite often and have hardened up like paspalum does when it gets continually mowed.
Will have to get a pup off that one one day Al as one seed plume a day would do each aviary. Craig

That was a good find. And it obviously is one oportunist/tough bush.
LML

Guinea Grass, giant variety of green panic, heaps of it up around the Sunshine coast, most of the stuff down here is the normal green panic

VR1Ton wrote:Guinea Grass, giant variety of green panic, heaps of it up around the Sunshine coast, most of the stuff down here is the normal green panic

I have guinea grass growing as well as johnson grass (type of sorghum) its taller.... but similiar seed spikes..

Talking to a local fincho the other day and he said that it looks like the grass that his son has growing where he lives, Redcliffe a northern suburb of Brisbane, Qld.

VR1Ton wrote:Guinea Grass, giant variety of green panic, heaps of it up around the Sunshine coast, most of the stuff down here is the normal green panic

Pete are you interested in a plant or two for your seed garden / patch as I am not sure if the council have killed/poisoned it all off?

Craig52 wrote:Will have to get a pup off that one one day Al as one seed plume a day would do each aviary. Craig

no problems Craig

VR1Ton wrote:Guinea Grass, giant variety of green panic, heaps of it up around the Sunshine coast, most of the stuff down here is the normal green panic

Is this Guinea Grass? Rich.

Yes it looks like Green Panic - Panicum maximum - which is a type of guinea grass.

The one you have wagga looks like Giant Panic (also sometimes called Blue Panic) it has hairy spikes around the base of the plant which can stick into your hands when you try to pull the plant out at the base. It also drops its seed very easily when ripe so best to pick a fraction earlier than green panic or you'll lose much of it as you break off the heads.

A word of warning concerning the growth height of this variety it easily reaches 2m high plus the exlarge seed stems are above this mark. Unless your aviary is 3m high I would not recommend planting this species inside the aviary. It will take over the birds flying space, keeps the floor wet and make viewing your birds near impossible.