Panicum sumatrense

Roth. ex Roem & Schult.

Little millet, Blue panic, Indian millet

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(c) Chuangzao, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Chuangzao

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(c) Aniruddha Singhamahapatra, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Aniruddha Singhamahapatra

What to Eat

Edible parts: Seeds, Cereal

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

Where to Find It

A tropical plant. It can tolerate drought. It can produce in poor soil. It is cultivated between 300-1000 m altitude. The annual average rainfall is 950-1200 mm.

Asia, China, Himalayas, India, Indochina, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Northeastern India, Pacific, Pakistan, Philippines, SE Asia, Sikkim, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Tibet, Vietnam,

Countries: United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Brunei, Bhutan, China, Fiji, Micronesia, Georgia, Indonesia, Israel, India, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Cambodia, Kiribati, North Korea, South Korea, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Laos, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Marshall Islands, Myanmar, Mongolia, Maldives, Malaysia, Nepal, Nauru, New Zealand, Oman, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Pakistan, Palau, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Solomon Islands, Singapore, Syria, Thailand, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan, Tonga, Turkey, Tuvalu, Taiwan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Vanuatu, Samoa, Yemen

How to Identify

A millet grass. It can be erect or lie over. It is a grass which grows each year from seed. It can be 2 m tall. Plants which lie over can form roots at the nodes. The stem is strongly branched. There can be 46 erect flowering branches. Erect plants only produce 26 flowering shoots. The leaf blade is narrow and 56 cm long by 21 mm wide. The flowering heads can be open or compact. They are 50 cm long. They can have 14-52 branches. The spikelet is sword shaped and 2.5 mm long. The seed is shiny white to almost black.

How to Grow

It is often grown in mixed plantings with foxtail millet, sorghum or pearl millet.

Wikipedia

Source ↗

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

Production

Plants can take 2.5-5 months to mature. Plants are harvested withy sickles then threshed and the grains removed by pounding. A yield of 200-600 kg/ha is average. In Rajasthan in India the seed are available August to November.

Other Information

It is an important cereal in the Eastern Ghats of India. It is cultivated.

Notes

There are about 500 Panicum species.

Names & Synonyms

Gadro, Gondula, Gundli, Heen-meneri, K(ee) sumatra, Kungu, Kungu, Kutki, Sama, Samai, Samalu, Sava, Shame, Shavan, Suan, Suniva

Pancium miliare auct. non Lamk.Panicum attenuatum Willd.Panicum psilopodium Trin.

References (19)

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