Broomcorn Millet

Common, Hog or Broomcorn Millet is widely cultivated as a hot weather crop in the rainy season. It is unlikely that it exists as a truly wild species as most records are from cultivated land or ruderal sites. It is thought to have originated as a crop plant in northern India but is now widely naturalised in warm temperate regions.

Cultuvated annuals; culms erect, single or tufted, nodes bearded; ligule ca. 1 mm long, with cilia ca. 2 mm long. Inflorescence an open or contracted panicle, drooping when mature. Spikeles 2-flowered, ovate-elliptic, ca. 4.5 mm long, acute, glabrous; glume papery, pointed, unequal; lower glume deltoid, 7-9-veined, ca. 3.5 mm long; upper glume 11-veined, veins converged into a thickened beak, as long as spikelet, palea of lower floret small, usually notched at apex; upper floret fertile, rounded, glabrous, polished, ca. 3 mm long, lemma rounded in back, 7-veined; palea 2-veined. Caryopsis rounded, 2 mm long, smooth, embryo 1/2 as long as grain, hilum punctiform, black.

Annual. Culms robust, 20–150 cm tall, glabrous or lower nodes and internodes pubescent or hispid. Leaves cauline; leaf sheaths hispid; leaf blades linear or narrowly lanceolate, 15–40 × 1–2.5 cm, glabrous to pilose or hispid, base cordate to amplexicaul, apex finely tapering; ligule 1.5–3 mm, a fringe of hairs from a membranous base. Panicle oblong to ovate in outline, 15–35 cm, drooping at maturity with the weight of the dense spikelets which are clustered toward the ends of the branches. Spikelets ovate to ovate-oblong, 4–5 mm, glabrous, acute to acuminate; lower glume ovate, 1/2–3/4 length of spikelet, 5-veined, acute or acuminate, separated by a short internode; upper glume equal to spikelet, 9–13-veined, acute or acuminate; lower floret barren, lemma similar to upper glume, palea reduced or absent; upper floret orange or yellow, smooth, shiny, usually persistent. Fl. and fr. Jul–Oct. 2n = 36, 40.

Robust, sparsely to densely hispid annual; culms 30-150 cm high, often branching. Leaf-blades linear to narrowly lanceolate, 1540 cm long, 8-24 mm wide, cordate to amplexicaul. Panicle narrowly oblong to pyramidal, 15-35 cm long, the branching tight or sometimes lax and giving the panicle a one-sided appearance. Spikelets mostly towards the ends of the branches, ovate to ovate-oblong, (4-)4.5-5.5 mm long, glabrous, acute to shortly acuminate; lower glume ovate, half to three-quarters the length of the spikelet, 5-nerved, acuminate, separated from the rest of the spikelet by a short internode; upper glume 11-13-nerved; lower lemma 11-13-nerved, its palea absent or reduced to a very short scale; upper lemma orange or yellowish, smooth and shining, usually persistent.

Nepal, N.W. India.

Originally from Central Asia, cultivated in warm and temperate regions. Taiwan, cultivated as a green fodder.

Distribution: Pakistan (Sind, Punjab, N.W.F.P., Gilgit & Kashmir; mostly in cultivation); India; introduced to parts of Africa, Europe, North and South America, Australia, Central and Eastern Asia.

2400 m

Fl. & Fr. Per.: July-September.

Commonly cultivated, especially in mountainous regions [cultivated in Bhutan, India, Japan, and widely elsewhere].