Sorghum
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About 30 species, see text |
Sorghum is a genus of numerous species of grasses, some of which are raised for grain and many of which are used as fodder plants either cultivated or as part of pasture. The plants are cultivated in warmer climates worldwide. Species are native to tropical and subtropical regions of all continents in addition to the South West Pacific and Australasia. Sorghum is in the subfamily Panicoideae and the tribe Andropogoneae (the tribe of big bluestem and sugar cane).
For more specific details on commercially exploited Sorghum see commercial sorghum.
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Cultivation and uses
Numerous Sorghum species are used for food (as grain and in sorghum syrup or "sorghum molasses"), fodder, the production of alcoholic beverages, as well as biofuels. Most species are drought tolerant and heat tolerant and are especially important in arid regions. They form an important component of pastures in many tropical regions. Sorghum species are an important food crop in Africa, Central America, and South Asia and is the "fifth most important cereal crop grown in the world".[1] Kirsten Bomblies has investigated some of the genetic details of different crop varieties of Sorghum in various populations globally.
A sorghum species, Johnson Grass, is classified as a noxious weed.
The reclaimed stalks of the sorghum plant are used to make a decorative millwork material marketed as Kirei board.
Some species of sorghum can contain levels of hydrogen cyanide, hordenine and nitrates lethal to grazing animals in the early stages of the plant's growth. Stressed plants, even at later stages of growth, can also contain toxic levels of cyanide.
In India, and other places, Sweet Sorghum stalks are used for producing bio-fuel by squeezing the juice and then fermenting into ethanol. Texas A&M University in the United States is currently running trials to produce the best varieties for ethanol production from sorghum leaves and stalks in the USA.
Species
- Sorghum almum
- Sorghum amplum
- Sorghum angustum
- Sorghum arundinaceum
- Sorghum bicolor (primary cultivated species)
- Sorghum brachypodum
- Sorghum bulbosum
- Sorghum burmahicum
- Sorghum controversum
- Sorghum drummondii
- Sorghum ecarinatum
- Sorghum exstans
- Sorghum grande
- Sorghum halepense
- Sorghum interjectum
- Sorghum intrans
- Sorghum laxiflorum
- Sorghum leiocladum
- Sorghum macrospermum
- Sorghum matarankense
- Sorghum miliaceum
- Sorghum nigrum
- Sorghum nitidum
- Sorghum plumosum
- Sorghum propinquum
- Sorghum purpureosericeum
- Sorghum stipoideum
- Sorghum timorense
- Sorghum trichocladum
- Sorghum versicolor
- Sorghum virgatum
- Sorghum vulgare
Hybrids
- Sorghum × almum
- Sorghum × drummondii
Sorghum in popular culture
- Actor Rick Moranis delivers a profane tirade about sorghum in the 1992 film "Honey I Blew Up the Kid"
Footnotes
References
- Watson, Andrew M. Agricultural Innovation in the Early Islamic World: The Diffusion of Crops and Farming Techniques, 700–1100. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. ISBN 052124711X.
External links
- FAO Report (1995) "Sorghum and millets in human nutrition"
- FAO "Compendium on post-harvest operations"—Contains discussion on origin, processing and uses of sorghum
- Alternative Field Crops
- ITIS 42106 2002-09-22
- ICRISAT
- Grain Sorghum Irrigation
- Sorghum on US Grains Council Web Site
- National Grain Sorghum Producers
- National Sweet Sorghum Producers and Processors Association
- Sorghum Handbook
- Sorghum Growth Stages
- Sequencing of the Sorghum Genome by Methylation Filtration
- Risk management of cyanide (prussic acid) and nitrates in sorghum crops
- Preliminary assembly and annotation of sorghum bicolor genome
- ChloroFill brand building panels made from sorghum stalks.
- Lost Crops of Africa: Sorghum
- Sorghum: A Biofuel Alternative
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