Cenchrus longisetus
M.C.Johnst. · speciesAt a glance
Sources11 archives
Databases and archives Cenchrus longisetus's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation7 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility3 918 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI4 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics6 specimens↗
NCBIUS National Library of Medicinesequences↗
GRIN TaxonomyUSDA-ARSdistribution & uses↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
CCDBChromosome Counts DB · Tel Aviv U.genome & karyotype↗
GoaTGenomes on a Tree · Sangergenome & karyotype↗
PloiDBPloidy Databasegenome & karyotypeEvery layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.
Pennisetum villosum is a species of flowering plant in the grass family Poaceae, known by the common name feathertop grass or just feathertop. It is native to northeastern Africa and parts of the Arabian Peninsula, and it is grown elsewhere as an ornamental plant. It can sometimes be found growing wild where it has escape cultivation. This is a perennial grass growing in rhizomatous clumps, producing erect stems up to about 75 centimeters tall. The inflorescence is a panicle of clustered spikelets surrounded by a cloudlike mass of plumose white bristles up to 5 centimeters long. The Latin specific epithet villosum means “with soft hairs”. In temperate zones it is hardy in mild or coastal areas, where temperatures do not fall much below freezing. Alternatively it is often grown as an annual. This plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Size & morphology18
Life cycle & reproduction15
Diet & foraging1
Habitat & environment13
Physiology & chemistry1
Other traits2
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Cenchrus longisetus has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
The complete instruction manual Cenchrus longisetus carries — its genome. We read it from three angles — how big it is, how the DNA is packed into chromosomes, and how completely it has been sequenced — and explain how to read each value as you go.
Genome sizehow big the whole instruction manual is
Measured in base pairs (bp) — the individual letters of DNA (human ≈ 3.2 Gb, a bacterium a few million). The chart places this genome on a logarithmic scale — each step to the right is ten times bigger — among reference organisms. Across species a bigger genome loosely tracks with larger cells, slower growth and lower-energy lifestyles (powered flight favours small genomes) — yet it does not imply more genes or a more advanced organism (the long-standing C-value paradox).
Chromosomes & ploidyhow the DNA is packaged
2n is the full chromosome count in a normal body cell; n is a gamete (egg or sperm), which carries half. Ploidy is how many complete chromosome sets each cell holds — 2× (diploid) is typical for animals, while higher levels (polyploidy) are common in plants. Click any value below to see the underlying records and sources.
2n 457×CCDB · iber-fl · CCDB · fl-europaea · CCDB · book-ipcn72 +4
2n 362×GoaT · Kew Plant DNA C-values Database · CCDB · kew
n 272×CCDB · ipcn-api-dl · CCDB · CromoCat 2015
tetraploid1×GoaT · Kew Plant DNA C-values Database
polyploid inferred1×PloiDB · genus-scale
How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.
At a glance
When this lineage existed
How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard epochs (Pliocene, Pleistocene…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. This lineage is a young one, so the strip is zoomed in to epochs — the finer subdivisions inside a period. The orange marker is the DNA clock: DNA accumulates mutations at a roughly steady rate, so comparing this species' DNA with its relatives estimates when the lineage split off — independently of any fossil.
Record type3 918 records
Origin
Range
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Holding institutions40 of 69 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
| Institution | Specimens |
|---|---|
| Adelaide, AU | 111 |
| Mount Annan, AU | 76 |
| Museo Entomologico de Leonlocation not on record | 55 |
| Brisbane, AU | 46 |
| Canberra, AU | 41 |
| BClocation not on record | 26 |
| Saint Louis, US | 25 |
| Auckland, NZ | 25 |
| BIO-UNIPIlocation not on record | 25 |
| Hobart, AU | 23 |
| Christchurch, NZ | 22 |
| Guasave, MX | 18 |
| Armidale, AU | 18 |
| University of Stellenboschlocation not on record | 14 |
| Kensington, AU | 14 |
| SLU Artdatabankenlocation not on record | 10 |
| San Diego, US | 10 |
| San Isidro, AR | 7 |
| San Luis Obispo, US | 7 |
| Canadian Department of Agriculturelocation not on record | 5 |
| WAGlocation not on record | 4 |
| John T. Waterhouse Herbariumlocation not on record | 4 |
| Corrientes, AR | 4 |
| Rotorua, NZ | 4 |
| Université de Bordeauxlocation not on record | 4 |
| Addis Ababa, ET | 2 |
| CIIDIRlocation not on record | 2 |
| Wellington, NZ | 2 |
| EAlocation not on record | 2 |
| Bronx, US | 2 |
| BGPAlocation not on record | 2 |
| Severin-McDaniel Insect Collectionlocation not on record | 2 |
| Palmerston, AU | 2 |
| Haramaya Universitylocation not on record | 2 |
| Wollongong, AU | 2 |
| UnBlocation not on record | 1 |
| Batemans Bay, AU | 1 |
| Museo Achille Folettolocation not on record | 1 |
| Institut und Museum fuer Geologie und Palaeontologielocation not on record | 1 |
| San Diego Natural History Museum, Herbariumlocation not on record | 1 |
| UIBlocation not on record | 1 |
| Granada, ES | 1 |
| LDlocation not on record | 1 |
| Herbario Universidad de Concepciónlocation not on record | 1 |
| Córdoba, AR | 1 |
| South African National Biodiversity Institutelocation not on record | 1 |
| Frankfurt am Main | 1 |
| La Paz, BO | 1 |
| Lubbock, US | 1 |
| Córdoba, ES | 1 |
| Bern, CH | 1 |
| Ypsilanti, US | 1 |
| Kew, GB | 1 |
| Madrid, ES | 1 |
| FTlocation not on record | 1 |
| Fort Worth, US | 1 |
| Glocation not on record | 1 |
| Santa Cruz de la Sierra, BO | 1 |
| Uppsala, SE | 1 |
| Embrapa Agrobiology Diazothrophic Microbial Culture Collectionlocation not on record | 1 |
| Palmerston North, NZ | 1 |
| Clocation not on record | 1 |
| Smithfield, AU | 1 |
| Berlin, DE | 1 |
| Moscow State Universitylocation not on record | 1 |
| La Trobe Universitylocation not on record | 1 |
| Madrid, ES | 1 |
| UChlocation not on record | 1 |
| Antiguo Cuscatlán, SV | 1 |
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
Where the DNA of Cenchrus longisetus was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Where its DNA was found
How strong is each trace?
Modelled climatemodelled
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.