Anatherum Grass

Anatherum grass (Themeda anathera, ghorka) is the perennial bunchgrass that dominates many sub-Himalayan grasslands across the Pothohar and the KPK hills. It is a mid-succession species, more settled than the bare-ground pioneers, and it is valued as a productive fodder grass that stabilises maturing rangeland. On a syntropic site it sits in the secondary stage of the grass layer, feeding stock and holding soil once the first colonisers have done their work.

Where it thrives

Ghorka is recorded from Afghanistan through the Himalaya to Tibet, and in Pakistan it is a characteristic grass of the northern grasslands and sub-Himalayan rangeland.¹ In the Gandgar range of northwest Pakistan it flowers from June to October and is rated a good fodder grass, and it turns up in fodder surveys from the northern hills down to the Thal margins.² It belongs to the rainfed hill and foothill grasslands of the Pothohar and KPK rather than the irrigated plains, growing as a tufted perennial that comes away with the summer rains and cures off as the season dries.¹

Role in the system

Ghorka is a secondary-stage grass that builds and holds a maturing sward. Where the hardy pioneers grip bare and eroded ground, this is a perennial bunchgrass that comes to dominate grassland once it has stabilised, forming a denser, more productive cover that anchors soil on hill slopes through the year.² On a syntropic plot that puts it in the grass layer of a developing system, taking over from the first colonisers to give a lasting, grazeable cover under and between establishing trees. Its standing growth feeds stock directly and can be cut for mulch and bedding, and as a tussock perennial it holds the slope between rains.

Grazing value

This is a working fodder grass of the northern ranges. It is grazed by livestock across the Pothohar and KPK hill grasslands and is recorded as a good fodder species, with a measurable place in the diet of rangeland stock.² As with most tropical bunchgrasses, its feeding value is highest while the growth is young and green and falls away as it matures and seeds, so it is best grazed or cut through the growing season rather than left to stand and coarsen.³ Managed that way it gives reliable summer grazing on hill ground that carries little arable use.

What you get

The returns are summer grazing, soil-holding on hill slopes, and cut growth for mulch and rough bedding.² As a productive, locally dominant fodder grass of the sub-Himalayan rangeland, ghorka is the kind of secondary-stage species that keeps a maturing grassland both stable and useful, supporting livestock on rainfed hill country while it binds the soil that the earlier pioneers first held.¹

Sources

1. Flora of Pakistan. “Themeda anathera.” eFloras.org.
2. Khan, Z. I., et al. (2007). “Nutritive value of free rangeland grasses of northern grasslands of Pakistan.” Pakistan Journal of Botany.
3. Heuzé, V., et al. (Feedipedia). “Red oat grass (Themeda triandra) — nutritive value of Themeda grasses.” INRAE, CIRAD, AFZ & FAO.