Plant · P-029

Sweet Sorghum

Sorghum bicolor

Sweet sorghum is a tall, drought-tolerant grass grown for the sugar in its stems, which are crushed and boiled down into a rich cane syrup, while the grain doubles as a gluten-free staple that can be eaten whole, popped, or ground into flour. Its roots plunge up to eight feet deep and three feet out to the side, breaking up compacted subsoil as they go, and the whole plant shrugs off heat and dry spells that would stop corn cold. The catch is in the leaves and young shoots: they carry a cyanide-forming compound that can kill grazing livestock until the plant matures or is dried into hay, so the harvest and grazing window has to be timed carefully. It also releases a root chemical that suppresses germinating weeds for weeks after the crop is gone.