Panicum sumatrense

Panicum sumatrense
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Monocots
(unranked): Commelinids
Order: Poales
Family: Poaceae
Genus: Panicum
Species: P. sumatrense
Binomial name
Panicum sumatrense
Roth ex Roem. & Schult.
Synonyms

Panicum miliare auct. non Lam.

Panicum sumatrense, known as little millet, is a species of millet in the family Poaceae.

Description

This species of cereal is similar in habit to the proso millet except that it is smaller. It is an annual herbaceous plant, which grows straight or with folded blades to a height of 30 cm to 1 m. The leaves are linear, with the sometimes hairy laminae and membranous hairy ligules. The panicles are from 4 to 15 cm in length with 2 to 3.5 mm long awn. The grain is round and smooth, 1.8 to 1.9 mm long.

Subspecies

There have been two subspecies described:

Distribution and habitat

In the temperate zones of Asia: the Caucasus, China, East Asia and also in the tropics of the continent: India, Indochina and Malaysia.

It can withstand both drought and waterlogging. It can be cultivated up to 2000 m above sea level.

Common names

In India Moraiyo, Kutki, Shavan are some of the names in Hindi for little millet. In Bengali it is called as Sama. In Tamil it is called Samai. In Gujarati Gajro, kuri. In Telugu, it is called as Samalu. In Marathi it is called as Sava, Halvi, vari. In oriya it is called as Suan.

Cultivation

The largest cultivation is in central India. Usually it is planted using a seed drill. It can also if necessary be planted spoiled. The green plant can also be used in part as cattle feed. The straw can mixed with clay or cement be used in construction.

The harvest yield is from 230 to 900 kg/ha.

Preparation

Little Millet is cooked like rice. Sometimes the millet is also milled and baked. The protein content of the grain is 7.7%.

References

Wikispecies has information related to: Panicum sumatrense

This article is based on a translation of the corresponding article in the German Wikipedia.

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, January 13, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.