Kodo Millet

This polymorphic species complex is thought to comprise an apomictic swarm. Some of its components have been described as separate species, but variation is continuous throughout. Robust forms are sometimes separated as Paspalum auriculatum J. Presl & C. Presl. Three recognizable entities are maintained here at varietal rank.

This is a highly polymorphic species, but with the variation apparently quite continuous; possibly it is a swarm of apomicts (see Clayton 1975).

It is sometimes cultivated as a hot weather crop, but under certain conditions the grain and fodder can be harmful.

Perennials; culm tufted, 50-100 cm tall, erect, decumbent at base. Blade 15-50 cm long, 7-12 mm wide, glabrous, more or less glaucous; sheath glabrous, longer than internode, compressed, keeled; ligule membranaceous, 0.5-1 mm long, with tawny hairs abaxially. Racemes 2-5(-8); rachis 1.5-3 mm wide, margins scabrous. Spikelet solitary, imbricate, glabrous, orbicular to ovate, 2-3 mm long; lower glume absent; upper glume membranaceous, 5 veined; lower lemma 5-7-veined, membranaceous or sometimes indurate; upper lemma dark brown at maturity, coriaceous.

Perennial or annual. Culms tufted, slender to robust, erect or decumbent and rooting at lower nodes, 30–90(–150) cm tall. Leaf sheaths compressed, keeled, usually glabrous; leaf blades linear or linear-lanceolate, 10–40 × 0.4–1.2 cm, usually glabrous, base subrounded, margins scabrous, apex acuminate; ligule 0.5–1 mm. Inflorescence of 2–5(–8) racemes, subdigitate or on a short axis; racemes 3–10 cm, ascending to widely spreading; spikelets usually single, overlapping in 2 rows, sometimes paired especially in middle of raceme; rachis ribbonlike, 1.5–3 mm wide, margins scabrous. Spikelets green becoming brown, suborbicular, ovate or broadly elliptic, 2–3 mm, glabrous, obtuse to apiculate; upper glume membranous, 3–7-veined; lower lemma membranous or sometimes indurate, 3–5(–7)-veined; upper lemma brown at maturity, subequaling spikelet, coriaceous, finely striate, obtuse. Fl. and fr. May–Nov. 2n = 20, 40 or 60.

Perennial; culms 10-150 cm high, 1-6 mm in diameter, 2-17-noded, the nodes commonly exposed, erect, or ascending from a procumbent base and rooting at the lower nodes. Leaf-blades linear, 5-40 cm long, 3-15 mm wide, tapering to a filiform tip. Inflorescence composed of 1-20 racemes, these digitate or borne on an axis up to 8 cm long, the lowest raceme 4-15 cm long, with spikelets borne singly on a ribbon-like rhachis 1-2.5 mm wide. Spikelets broadly elliptic, obovate or suborbicular, 1.4-3 mm long, green, becoming brown; lower glume absent; upper glume papery; lower lemma similar or rarely coriaceous, 3-5-nerved (in the latter case the nerves evenly spaced or the laterals close together); upper lemma finely striate, brown at maturity.

S.E. Asia to Polynesia & Australia.

Tropical Asia and Pacific islands. Taiwan, common in tea plantation, roadsides, dry fields, grasslands and waste places.

Distribution: Pakistan (Sind); throughout the Old World tropics.

200-2200 m

Fl. & Fr. Per.: April-May and again October-December.

Roadsides, weedy places, often on damp soils. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [tropics and subtropics of the Old World; introduced in America].