Millets
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Millets
Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most millets belong to the tribe Paniceae. Millets are important crops in the semiarid tropics of Asia and Africa, especially in India, Mali, Nigeria, and Niger, with 97% of production in developing countries. The crop is favoured for its productivity and short growing season under hot dry conditions. The millets are sometimes understood to include the widely cultivated sorghum; apart from that, pearl millet is the most commonly cultivated of the millets. Finger millet, proso millet, and foxtail millet are other important crop species. Millets may have been consumed by humans for about 7,000 years and potentially had "a pivotal role in the rise of multi-crop agriculture and settled farming societies". Etymology The word ''millet'' is derived via Old French ''millet, millot'' from -4; we might wonder whether there's a point at whi ...
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Proso Millet
''Panicum miliaceum'' is a grain crop with many common names, including proso millet, broomcorn millet, common millet, hog millet, Kashfi millet, red millet, and white millet. Archaeobotany, Archaeobotanical evidence suggests millet was first domesticated about Before Present, 10,000 BP in Northern China. Major cultivated areas include Agriculture in China, Northern China, Himachal Pradesh of India, Agriculture in Nepal, Nepal, Agriculture in Russia, Russia, Agriculture in Ukraine, Ukraine, Agriculture in Belarus, Belarus, the Middle East, Agriculture in Turkey, Turkey, Agriculture in Romania, Romania, and the Great Plains states of the United States. About are grown each year. The crop is notable both for its extremely short lifecycle, with some varieties producing grain only 60 days after planting, and its low water requirements, producing grain more efficiently per unit of moisture than any other grain species tested. The name "proso millet" comes from the pan-Slavic general ...
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Pearl Millet
Pearl millet (''Cenchrus americanus'', commonly known as the synonym ''Pennisetum glaucum'') is the most widely grown type of millet. It has been grown in Africa and the Indian subcontinent since prehistoric times. The center of diversity, and suggested area of domestication, for the crop is in the Sahel zone of West Africa. Recent archaeobotanical research has confirmed the presence of domesticated pearl millet on the Sahel zone of northern Mali between 2500 and 2000 BC. 2023 was the , declared by the United Nations General Assembly in 2021. Description Pearl millet has ovoid grains of length, the largest kernels of all varieties of millet (not including sorghum). These can be nearly white, pale yellow, brown, grey, slate blue or purple. The 1000-seed weight can be anything from 2.5 to 14 g with a mean of 8 g. The height of the plant ranges from . Cultivation Pearl millet is well adapted to growing areas characterized by drought, low soil fertility, low moisture, and high t ...
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Eleusine Coracana
Finger millet (''Eleusine coracana'') is an annual herbaceous plant widely grown as a cereal crop in the arid and semiarid areas in Africa and Asia. It is a tetraploid and self-pollinating species probably evolved from its wild relative ''Eleusine africana''. Finger millet is native to the Ethiopian and Ugandan highlands. Interesting crop characteristics of finger millet are the ability to withstand cultivation at altitudes over above sea level, its high drought tolerance, and the long storage time of the grains. History Finger millet originated in East Africa (Ethiopian and Ugandan highlands). It was claimed to have been found in an Indian archaeological site dated to 1800 BCE (Late Bronze Age); however, this was subsequently demonstrated to be incorrectly identified cleaned grains of hulled millets. The oldest record of finger millet comes from an archaeological site in Africa dating to the 3rd millennium B.C. By 1996, cultivation of finger millet in Africa was declinin ...
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Finger Millet
Finger millet (''Eleusine coracana'') is an Annual plant, annual herbaceous plant widely grown as a cereal crop in the arid and Semi-arid climate, semiarid areas in Africa and Asia. It is a tetraploid and Self-pollination, self-pollinating species probably evolved from its wild relative ''Eleusine africana''. Finger millet is native to the Ethiopian Highlands, Ethiopian and Ugandan highlands. Interesting crop characteristics of finger millet are the ability to withstand cultivation at altitudes over above sea level, its high drought tolerance, and the long storage time of the grains. History Finger millet originated in East Africa (Ethiopian and Ugandan highlands). It was claimed to have been found in an Indian archaeological site dated to 1800 BCE (Late Bronze Age); however, this was subsequently demonstrated to be incorrectly identified cleaned grains of hulled millets. The oldest record of finger millet comes from an archaeological site in Africa dating to the 3rd millenni ...
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Foxtail Millet
Foxtail millet, scientific name ''Setaria italica'' (synonym ''Panicum italicum'' L.), is an annual grass grown for human food. It is the second-most widely planted species of millet, and the most grown millet species in Asia. The oldest evidence of foxtail millet cultivation was found along the ancient course of the Yellow River in Cishan culture, Cishan, China, carbon dated to be from around 8,000 years before present. Foxtail millet has also been grown in India since antiquity. Other names for the species include dwarf setaria, foxtail bristle-grass, giant setaria, green foxtail, Italian millet, German millet, and Hungarian millet. Description Foxtail millet is an annual plant, annual Poaceae, grass with slim, vertical, leafy stems which can reach a height of . The seedhead is a dense, hairy panicle long. The small seeds, around in diameter, are encased in a thin, papery hull which is easily removed in threshing. Seed color varies greatly between varieties. File:Food gr ...
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Sorghum
''Sorghum bicolor'', commonly called sorghum () and also known as great millet, broomcorn, guinea corn, durra, imphee, jowar, or milo, is a species in the Poaceae, grass genus ''Sorghum (genus), Sorghum'' cultivated for its grain. The grain is used as food by humans, while the plant is used for animal feed and ethanol production. Sorghum originated in Africa, and is widely cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions. Sorghum is the world's fifth-most important cereal crop after rice, wheat, maize, and barley. Sorghum is typically an annual, but some cultivars are perennial. It grows in clumps that may reach over high. The grain is small, in diameter. Sweet sorghums are cultivars grown for forage, syrup production, and ethanol. They are taller than those grown for grain. Description Sorghum is a large stout grass that grows up to tall. It has large bushy flowerheads or panicles that provide an edible starchy grain with up to 3,000 seeds in each flowerhead. It grows ...
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Cereal
A cereal is a grass cultivated for its edible grain. Cereals are the world's largest crops, and are therefore staple foods. They include rice, wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, and maize ( Corn). Edible grains from other plant families, such as amaranth, buckwheat and quinoa, are pseudocereals. Most cereals are annuals, producing one crop from each planting, though rice is sometimes grown as a perennial. Winter varieties are hardy enough to be planted in the autumn, becoming dormant in the winter, and harvested in spring or early summer; spring varieties are planted in spring and harvested in late summer. The term cereal is derived from the name of the Roman goddess of grain crops and fertility, Ceres. Cereals were domesticated in the Neolithic around 8,000 years ago. Wheat and barley were domesticated in the Fertile Crescent; rice and some millets were domesticated in East Asia, while sorghum and other millets were domesticated in West Africa. Maize was domesticat ...
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Maize
Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native Americans planted it alongside beans and squashes in the Three Sisters polyculture. The leafy stalk of the plant gives rise to male inflorescences or tassels which produce pollen, and female inflorescences called ears. The ears yield grain, known as kernels or seeds. In modern commercial varieties, these are usually yellow or white; other varieties can be of many colors. Maize relies on humans for its propagation. Since the Columbian exchange, it has become a staple food in many parts of the world, with the total production of maize surpassing that of wheat and rice. Much maize is used for animal feed, whether as grain or as the whole plant, which can either be baled or made into the more palatable silage. Sugar-rich varieties called sw ...
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Joseph Gaertner
Joseph Gaertner (12 March 1732 – 14 July 1791) was a German botanist, best known for his work on seeds, ''De Fructibus et Seminibus Plantarum'' (1788-1792). Biography He was born in Calw, and studied in Göttingen under Albrecht von Haller. He was primarily a naturalist, but also worked at physics and zoology. He travelled extensively to visit other naturalists. He was professor of anatomy in Tübingen in 1760, and was appointed professor of botany at St Petersburg in 1768, but returned to Calw in 1770. Gaertner made back cross to convert one species into another. Back cross increases nuclear gene frequency His observations were: 1. Dominance of traits 2. Equal contribution of male and female to the progeny 3. No variation in F1 (first generation of descendants) 4. Large variation in F2 (second generation of descendants) including parental and intermediate types 5. Some of F2 plants had entirely new traits but he was unable to give possible explanation for observed dat ...
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Otto Stapf (botanist)
Otto Stapf FRS (23 April 1857 – 3 August 1933) was an Austrian born botanist and taxonomist, the son of Joseph Stapf, who worked in the Hallstatt salt-mines. He grew up in Hallstatt and later published about the archaeological plant remains from the Late Bronze- and Iron Age mines that had been uncovered by his father. Stapf studied botany in Vienna under Julius Wiesner, where he received his PhD with a dissertation on cristals and cristalloids in plants. 1882 he became assistant professor (''Assistent'') of Anton Kerner. In 1887 he was made ''Privatdozent'' (lecturer without a chair) in Vienna. He published the results of an expedition Jakob Eduard Polak, the personal physician of Nasr al-Din, the Shah of Persia, had conducted in 1882, and plants collected by Felix von Luschan in Lycia and Mesopotamia 1881–1883. In 1885, Polak sponsored Stapf to conduct a botanical expedition of his own to South- and Western Persia, which was to last nine month. This led to the disco ...
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Pennisetum
''Cenchrus'' is a widespread genus of plants in the grass family, native to tropical and warm temperate regions of the world. Its species are native to many countries in Asia, Africa, Australia, the Americas, and various oceanic islands. Common names include buffelgrasses, sandburs, and sand spur. Such names allude to the sharp, spine-covered burrs characterizing the inflorescences of the members of the genus. Those previously classified as ''Pennisetum'' are known commonly as fountaingrasses (fountain grasses).''Pennisetum''.
Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS).
''Pennisetum''.
The Jepson eFlora 2013.


Taxonomy

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Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area around Rome, Italy. Through the expansion of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language in the Italian Peninsula and subsequently throughout the Roman Empire. It has greatly influenced many languages, Latin influence in English, including English, having contributed List of Latin words with English derivatives, many words to the English lexicon, particularly after the Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England, Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons and the Norman Conquest. Latin Root (linguistics), roots appear frequently in the technical vocabulary used by fields such as theology, List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names, the sciences, List of medical roots, suffixes and prefixes, medicine, and List of Latin legal terms ...
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