Spear Grass

Spear grass (Heteropogon contortus, sariala) is the drought-hardy bunchgrass that pioneers eroded rangeland across the Pothohar, the Balochistan highlands, and the drier Punjab plains. It gives valuable early-season grazing and binds soil on dry slopes, and on a syntropic site it works as a tough pioneer for degraded ground that puts both feed and cover onto land where little else will start. Its one real drawback comes after it flowers, when its sharp seeds turn from feed into a hazard.

Where it thrives

Sariala runs through the sub-humid and semi-arid tropics and subtropics, where it grows best on annual rainfall of roughly 600 to 1,000 mm but can persist on less than 210 mm, which is what makes it a frontline grass for dry country.¹ That tolerance suits it to the rainfed Pothohar, the dry Balochistan uplands, and the drier margins of the Punjab plains, on the kind of eroded, low-fertility slope where softer grasses fail.¹ It is a perennial bunchgrass that holds its ground through drought once the roots are down, recovering from the base when rain returns.¹

Role in the system

In a dryland guild, spear grass is a pioneer soil-binder and early grazing crop. Its tufted root system grips eroded slope and broken rangeland, holding soil where water and wind strip it, and as a hardy perennial it establishes on degraded ground ahead of more demanding species.¹ That makes it a useful early cover on the dry edges and slopes of a system, stabilising the surface while shrubs and trees come up behind it. Its standing growth and old leaf can be cut for mulch, and on rangeland it is part of the grass layer that feeds stock directly. The catch, covered below, is that its value as feed is tied tightly to its growth stage.

Grazing value

Sariala is genuinely useful feed, but only when young. It is grazed readily in the early stages of growth, when it is more palatable and carries crude protein up to about 10%, giving real early-season grazing on rangeland.¹ Two limits matter. It does not stand up to heavy grazing and gives way to other grasses under continuous hard use, so a stubble of around 15 cm should be left.¹ And after flowering its sharp-pointed seeds and twisted awns work into wool and hide and can pierce the skin and cause injury, so it should not be grazed or cut for fodder once it has seeded.¹

What you get

The returns are early-season grazing, soil-holding on dry eroded ground, and cut growth for mulch, with annual dry-matter yields ranging widely with rainfall and management, from well under a tonne to several tonnes per hectare.¹ Managed for the early growth and rested before it sets its hazardous seed, sariala is a practical pioneer grass for the dry north and west, the kind of tough rangeland species that feeds stock and holds soil on land too harsh for more delicate grasses.¹

Sources

1. Heuzé, V., et al. (Feedipedia). “Spear grass (Heteropogon contortus).” INRAE, CIRAD, AFZ & FAO.