Sorghum is a genus of plants in the grass family. Seventeen of the twenty-five species are native to Australia, with the range of some extending to Africa, Asia, Mesoamerica, and certain islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

One species is grown for grain, while many others are used as fodder plants, either intentionally cultivated or allowed to grow naturally, in pasture lands. The plants are cultivated in warm climates worldwide and naturalized in many places. Sorghum is in the subfamily Panicoideae and the tribe Andropogoneae (the tribe of big bluestem and sugarcane).