Foxtail millet
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| Foxtail millet | |
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| Immature seedhead | |
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S. italica
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| Binomial name | |
| Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauvois
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Foxtail millet (Chinese: 小米; botanic name Setaria italica, synonym Panicum italicum L.) is the second-most widely planted species of millet, and the most important in East Asia. It has the longest history of cultivation among the millets, having been grown in China since sometime in the sixth millennium BC. Other names for the species include dwarf setaria,[2] foxtail bristle-grass,[3] giant setaria,[2] green foxtail,[2] Italian millet,[2] German millet,[2] and Hungarian millet.[2]
Description
Foxtail millet is an annual grass with slim, vertical, leafy stems which can reach a height of 120–200 cm (3.9–6.6 ft).
The seedhead is a dense, hairy panicle 5–30 cm (2.0–11.8 in) long.
The small seeds, around 2 mm (less than 1/8 in.) in diameter, are encased in a thin, papery hull which is easily removed in threshing. Seed color varies greatly between varieties.
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Seeds of foxtail millet
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Mochi-Awa, Japanese foxtail millet
Names
Names for foxtail millet in other languages spoken in the countries where it is cultivated include:
- Telugu: కొర్రలు (korralu) or korra[4]
- Hindi कांगणी (Kangni)
- Punjabi ਕਂਗਣੀ/کنگنی (Kangni)*Gujarati: kang
- Japanese: awa (粟)
- Kannada: navane or navane akki
- Korean: jo (조). The grain obtained from it is called jopsal (좁쌀), a word that is commonly used in Korean as a metaphor for pettiness or innumerable small things (such as bumps of a skin rash).
- Malay: jewawut.
- Malayalam: thina
- Mandarin Chinese: xiǎomǐ (小米). It is the term commonly used for the grain after it has been husked (husks have been removed); unhusked grain is called guzi (谷子) in North China. Also called su (粟).[5]
- Marathi: kang or rala
- Sinhala: thana haal
- Tamil: thinai, kavalai, or kambankorai; nuvanam (millet flour). The gruel made from millet, the staple of Ancient Tamils, is called kali, moddak kali, kuul, or sangati.
Cultivation
In South India, it has been a staple diet among people for a long time from the sangam period. It is popularly quoted in the old Tamil texts and is commonly associated with Lord Muruga and his consort Valli.
In China, foxtail millet is the most common millet and one of the main food crops, especially among the poor in the dry northern part of that country. In Europe and North America it is planted at a moderate scale for hay and silage, and to a more limited extent for birdseed.
It is a warm season crop, typically planted in late spring. Harvest for hay or silage can be made in 65–70 days (typical yield is 15,000-20,000 kg/ha of green matter or 3,000-4,000 kg/ha of hay), and for grain in 75–90 days (typical yield is 800–900 kg/ha of grain). Its early maturity and efficient use of available water make it suitable for raising in dry areas.
Diseases of foxtail millet include leaf and head blast disease caused by Magnaporthe grisea, smut disease caused by Ustilago crameri, and green ear caused by Sclerospora graminicola. The unharvested crop is also susceptible to attack by birds and rodents.
History and domestication
The wild antecedent of foxtail millet has been securely identified as Setaria viridis, which is interfertile with foxtail millet; wild or weedy forms of foxtail millet also exist. Zohary and Hopf note that the primary difference between the wild and cultivated forms is "their seed dispersal biology. Wild and weedy forms shatter their seed while the cultivars retain them."[6] The earliest evidence of the cultivation of this grain comes from the Peiligang culture of China, which also cultivated the common millet, but foxtail millet became the predominant grain only with the Yangshao culture.[6]
Foxtail millet arrived in Europe later; carbonized seeds first appear in the second millennium BC in central Europe. The earliest definite evidence for its cultivation in the Near East is at the Iron Age levels at Tille Hoyuk in Turkey, with an uncorrected radiocarbon date of about 600 BC.[6]
Notes
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- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Daniel Zohary and Maria Hopf, Domestication of plants in the Old World, third edition (Oxford: University Press, 2000), p. 86-88
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Foxtail millet. |
- Alternative Field Crops Manual: Millets
- 粟の収穫 粟の脱穀 — "Harvest of foxtail millet" Gujō, Gifu, Japan
