Common name: Japanese Millet
Echinochloa esculenta (A.Braun) H.Scholz APNI* Synonyms: Echinochloa utilis Ohwi & Yabuno APNI*
Description: Erect annual to 1 m high with stout culms.
Leaves with ligule absent; blade 5–25 mm wide.
Panicle erect, 7–20 cm long, dense with erect or spreading branches. Spikelets mostly 2 or 3 together on scabrous pedicels, 3–4 mm long, obtuse to shortly acute, mostly purplish to blackish brown. Lower glume, 25–30% of spikelet length, apex acute to mucronate or obtuse, 5-nerved; upper usually shorter than spikelet and exposing upper part of maturing floret, acute, 5-nerved. Lower lemma equal to spikelet, shortly acuminate or shortly cuspidate, 7-nerved. Fertile lemma shortly apiculate, smooth, 5-nerved. Lower palea shorter and narrower than lower lemma, shortly 2-lobed. Upper palea subequal to its lemma. Grain dark.
Flowering: summer.
Distribution and occurrence: Cultivated for forage and grain and sometimes used as a soil stabilizer, common in birdseed mixtures, often escaped from cultivation. Originated in eastern Asia.
NSW subdivisions: *NC, *CC, *NT, *CT, *ST, *NWS, *CWS, *SWS, *NWP, *SWP
Other Australian states: *Qld *Vic. *Tas. *W.A. *S.A.
Text by S. W. L. Jacobs & T. A. James
Taxon concept: Flora of NSW 4 (1993)
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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