Millets are a group of highly variable 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, but some millets also belong to various other taxa.
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. Archaeobotanical evidence suggests millet was first domesticated about 10,000 BP in Northern China. The crop is extensively cultivated in China, India, Nepal, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Middle East, Turkey, Romania, and the United States, where about half a million acres 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 and generic name for millet. Proso millet is a relative of foxtail millet, pearl millet, maize, and sorghum within the grass subfamily Panicoideae. While all of these crops use C4 photosynthesis, the others all employ the NADP-ME as their primary carbon shuttle pathway, while the primary C4 carbon shuttle in proso millet is the NAD-ME pathway.
Sorghum is a genus of about 25 species of flowering plants in the grass family (Poaceae). Some of these species are grown as cereals for human consumption and some in pastures for animals. One species, Sorghum bicolor, was originally domesticated in Africa and has since spread throughout the globe. Seventeen of the 25 species are native to Australia, with the range of some extending to Africa, Asia, Mesoamerica, and certain islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. One species is grown for grain, while many others are used as fodder plants, either cultivated in warm climates worldwide or naturalized in pasture lands. Sorghum is in the subfamily Panicoideae and the tribe Andropogoneae.
Trifolium repens, white clover, is a herbaceous perennial plant in the bean family Fabaceae. It is native to Europe, including the British Isles, and central Asia and is one of the most widely cultivated types of clover. It has been widely introduced worldwide as a forage crop, and is now also common in most grassy areas of North America, Australia and New Zealand. The species includes varieties often classed as small, intermediate and large, according to height, which reflects petiole length. The term 'white clover' is applied to the species in general, 'Dutch clover' is often applied to intermediate varieties, and 'ladino clover' is applied to large varieties.
Lolium is a genus of tufted grasses in the bluegrass subfamily of the grass family. It is often called ryegrass, but this term is sometimes used to refer to grasses in other genera.
Kangaroo paw is the common name for a number of species, in two genera of the family Haemodoraceae, that are native to the south-west of Western Australia. These rhizomatous perennial plants are noted for their unique bird-attracting flowers. The tubular flowers are coated with dense hairs and open at the apex with six claw-like structures, and it is from this paw-like formation that the common name "kangaroo paw" is derived.
Sorghum × drummondii, is a hybrid-derived species of grass raised for forage and grain, native to tropical and subtropical regions of Eastern Africa. It may also be known as Sorghum bicolor × Sorghum arundinaceum after its parents. Some authorities consider all three species to be subspecies under S. bicolor.
Johnson grass or Johnsongrass, Sorghum halepense, is a plant in the grass family, Poaceae, native to Asia and northern Africa. The plant has been introduced to all continents except Antarctica, and most larger islands and archipelagos. It reproduces by rhizomes and seeds.
Sorghum bicolor, commonly called sorghum and also known as great millet, broomcorn, guinea corn, durra, imphee, jowar, or milo, is a grass species cultivated for its grain, which is used for food for humans, animal feed, and ethanol production. Sorghum originated in Africa, and is now cultivated widely in tropical and subtropical regions. Sorghum is the world's fifth-most important cereal crop after rice, wheat, maize, and barley, with 59.34 million metric tons of annual global production in 2018. S. bicolor is typically an annual, but some cultivars are perennial. It grows in clumps that may reach over 4 m high. The grain is small, ranging from 2 to 4 mm in diameter. Sweet sorghums are sorghum cultivars that are primarily grown for forage, syrup production, and ethanol; they are taller than those grown for grain.
Ascochyta sorghi is a fungal plant pathogen. It causes Ascochyta leaf spot on barley that can also be caused by the related fungi Ascochyta hordei, Ascochyta graminea and Ascochyta tritici. It is considered a minor disease of barley.
Peronosclerospora sorghi is a plant pathogen. It is the causal agent of sorghum downy mildew. The pathogen is a fungal-like protist in the oomycota, or water mold, class. Peronosclerospora sorghi infects susceptible plants though sexual oospores, which survive in the soil, and asexual sporangia which are disseminated by wind. Symptoms of sorghum downy mildew include chlorosis, shredding of leaves, and death. Peronosclerospora sorghi infects maize and sorghum around the world, but causes the most severe yield reductions in Africa. The disease is controlled mainly through genetic resistance, chemical control, crop rotation, and strategic timing of planting.
A crop wild relative (CWR) is a wild plant closely related to a domesticated plant. It may be a wild ancestor of the domesticated (cultivated) plant, or another closely related taxon.
Perennial rice are varieties of long-lived rice that are capable of regrowing season after season without reseeding; they are being developed by plant geneticists at several institutions. Although these varieties are genetically distinct and will be adapted for different climates and cropping systems, their lifespan is so different from other kinds of rice that they are collectively called perennial rice. Perennial rice—like many other perennial plants—can spread by horizontal stems below or just above the surface of the soil but they also reproduce sexually by producing flowers, pollen and seeds. As with any other grain crop, it is the seeds that are harvested and eaten by humans.
Striga hermonthica, commonly known as purple witchweed or giant witchweed, is a hemiparasitic plant that belongs to the family Orobanchaceae. It is devastating to major crops such as sorghum and rice. In sub-Saharan Africa, apart from sorghum and rice, it also infests maize, pearl millet, and sugar cane.
Tyrosine N-monooxygenase (EC 1.14.13.41, tyrosine N-hydroxylase, CYP79A1) is an enzyme with systematic name L-tyrosine,NADPH:oxygen oxidoreductase (N-hydroxylating). This enzyme catalyses the following chemical reaction
Sorghum is an important staple crop for more than 500 million people in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, including many people in Nepal. In statistics collected from 1992-1994 about general millet, Nepal had an area of 0.21 million ha, with a yield rate of 1.14 (t/ha), and produced around 0.24 million tons of sorghum. The entirety of the crop is highly valued, with both the grain and the stem being utilized. The Terai region of Nepal tends to be more tropical which is ideal for the growth of sorghum. It tolerates hot climates better than maize or soybeans. For subsistence farmers, like those in Nepal, fertilizers are not necessary and the crop is frequently harvested by hand.
Annuality and perenniality represent major life history strategies within plant lineages. These traits can shift from one to another over both macroevolutionary and microevolutionary timescales. While perenniality and annuality are often described as discrete either-or traits, they often occur in a continuous spectrum. The complex history of switches between annual and perennial habit involve both natural and artificial causes, and studies of this fluctuation have importance to sustainable agriculture.
The agricultural weed syndrome is the set of common traits which make a plant a successful agricultural weed. Most of these traits are not, themselves, phenotypes but are instead methods of rapid adaptation. So equipped, plants of various origins - invasives, natives, mildly successful marginal weeds of agriculture, weeds of other settings - accumulate other characteristics which allow them to compete in an environment with a high degree of human management.
Sorghum × almum, the Columbus grass, is a hybrid species of flowering plant in the family Poaceae. Its parents are Sorghum bicolor × S. halepense (Johnsongrass). Sorghum × almum is one of the most valuable livestock forage and fodder crops during summer in semi-arid and sub-humid areas worldwide. It is considered a noxious weed in several US and Australian states.
Sorghum macrospermum, the Katherine sorghum, is a species of flowering plant in the family Poaceae, endemic only to limestone outcrops in the Katherine River area of the Northern Territory of Australia. An annual and a diploid, as a crop wild relative of Sorghum bicolor it is being studied for its resistance to various pest species.
