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 species generally referred to as millets belong to the tribe Paniceae.
Oryza is a genus of plants in the grass family. It includes the major food crop rice. Members of the genus grow as tall, wetland grasses, growing to 1–2 metres (3–7 ft) tall; the genus includes both annual and perennial species.
Forage is a plant material eaten by grazing livestock. Historically, the term forage has meant only plants eaten by the animals directly as pasture, crop residue, or immature cereal crops, but it is also used more loosely to include similar plants cut for fodder and carried to the animals, especially as hay or silage.
Foxtail millet, scientific name Setaria italica, 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, China, carbon dated to be from around 8,000 years before present. Foxtail millet has also been grown in India since antiquity.
Echinochloa frumentacea is a species of Echinochloa. Both Echinochloa frumentacea and E. esculenta are called Japanese millet. This millet is widely grown as a cereal in India, Pakistan, and Nepal. Its wild ancestor is the tropical grass Echinochloa colona, but the exact date or region of domestication is uncertain. It is cultivated on marginal lands where rice and other crops will not grow well. The grains are cooked in water, like rice, or boiled with milk and sugar. Sometimes it is fermented to make beer. While also being part of staple diet for some communities in India, these seeds are, in particular, eaten during religious fasting. For this reason, these seeds are commonly also referred to as "vrat ke chawal" in Hindi. Other common names to identify these seeds include oodalu (ಊದಲು) in Kannada, Shyamak (শ্যামাক) or Shyama Chal in Bangla, jhangora in the Garhwal Hills, bhagar (भगर) in Marathi-speaking areas, samo or morio seeds in Gujarati, bonthasaamalu (బొంతసామలు) in Telugu, and kuthiraivaali (குதிரைவாளி) in Tamil.
Echinochloa esculenta is a species of grass in the family Poaceae. It is referred to by the common names Japanese barnyard millet or Japanese millet, is a species of Echinochloa that is cultivated on a small scale in India, Japan, China and Korea, both as a food and for animal fodder. It is grown in areas where the land is unsuitable or the climate too cool for paddy rice cultivation. However, the development of rice varieties that can withstand cold has led to a sharp decline in the cultivation of Japanese barnyard millet, in favor of rice. The earliest records of the domesticated form date to 2000 BC from the Jōmon period of Japan.
Echinochloa colonum, commonly known as jungle rice, wild rice, deccan grass, jharua or awnless barnyard grass, is a type of wild grass originating from tropical Asia. It was formerly classified as a species of Panicum. It is the wild ancestor of the cultivated cereal crop Echinochloa frumentacea, sawa millet. Some taxonomists treat the two taxa as one species, in which case the domesticated forms may also be referred to as E. colonum.
Echinochloa is a very widespread genus of plants in the grass family and tribe Paniceae. Some of the species are known by the common names barnyard grass or cockspur grass.
Echinochloa crus-galli is a type of wild grass originating from tropical Asia that was formerly classified as a type of panicum grass. It is commonly known as cockspur, barnyard millet, Japanese millet, water grass, common barnyard grass, or simply "barnyard grass". This plant can grow to 1.5 m in height and has long, flat leaves which are often purplish at the base. Most stems are upright, but some will spread out over the ground. Stems are flattened at the base. The seed heads are a distinctive feature, often purplish, with large millet-like seeds in crowded spikelets.
In plant biology, Vavilovian mimicry (also crop mimicry or weed mimicry is a form of mimicry in plants where a weed evolves to share characteristics with a crop plant through generations of involuntary artificial selection. It is named after the Russian plant geneticist Nikolai Vavilov.
Echinochloa stagnina is a species of Echinochloa widespread in tropical Africa and Asia, with an invasive status in many Pacific islands. It was once one of the major grasses cultivated in the Inner Niger Delta of the Niger River. It was cultivated by the Fulani people, who used the seeds as food, and to make both alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages.
Leersia is a genus of plants in the grass family which includes species known generally as cutgrasses.
Leersia oryzoides is a species of grass known by the common name rice cutgrass or just cut-grass. It is a widespread grass native to Europe, Asia, and North America and present in many other regions, such as Australia, as an introduced species. This is a rhizomatous perennial grass growing to a maximum height between 1 and 1.5 meters. The leaves are up to about 28 centimeters long and have very rough, minutely toothed edges. The inflorescence is a loose, open array of wavy, hairlike branches bearing rows of spikelets. Each spikelet is a flat fruit with a rough, bristly lemma without an awn, and no glumes. Some of the spikelet branches develop within the sheaths of the leaves and are cleistogamous. This grass is sometimes used for erosion control and restoring wetlands.
Echinochloa crus-pavonis is a species of grass known by the common name gulf cockspur grass. It is native to much of the Americas, Africa, and part of Asia, and it is known throughout the world as an introduced species. It is an annual grass often exceeding 1.5 meters in maximum height. The inflorescence is divided into several branches coated in green spikelets.
Echinochloa muricata is a species of grass known by the common names rough barnyard grass and American barnyard grass. It is native to Eurasia and much of North America.
Brachiaria, or signalgrass, is a genus of plants in the grass family native to tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, Africa, Australia, southern Europe, the Americas, and various islands. There are over 100 species.
Leersia virginica, commonly known as whitegrass, white cutgrass, or Virginian cutgrass, is a perennial grass that is native to eastern North America, typically found in partially shaded low-lying wet areas.
Oebalus pugnax, the rice stink bug, is a flying insect in the shield bug family Pentatomidae native to North America that has become a major agricultural pest in the Southern United States. It has been a known pest since at least the time of Johan Christian Fabricius, who described the species in 1775.
Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae is a bacterial pathovar that causes a serious blight of rice, other grasses, and sedges.
Echinochloa pyramidalis is a species of large grass, occurring naturally in flooded regions and beside lakes in tropical Africa and America, and introduced to various other countries. It is commonly known as antelope grass.
