Common name
Japanese Millet

Derivation
Echinochloa P.Beauv., Ess. Agrostogr. 53 (1812); from the Greek echinos (hedgehog) and chloe (grass), alluding to the echinate inflorescence branches.

esculenta- Latin for edible. Grain edible.

Published in
Taxon 41: 523 (1992).

Common synonyms
Echinochloa utilis Ohwi & Yab.

Habit
Annual. Stolons absent. Culms erect, robust, 30–150 cm tall, 4–7-noded. Ligule absent. Collar glabrous. Leaf-blades 8–35 cm long, 7–25 mm wide. Leaf-blade surface scaberulous or scabrous. Leaf-blade margins scaberulous or scabrous.

Inflorescence
Inflorescence compound, a panicle of racemes, embraced at base by subtending leaf. Raceme 12–15, closely spaced (inflorescence lanceolate), arcuate to flexuous, unilateral, 0.5–3 cm long, simple. Central inflorescence axis 7–20 cm long, hairy. Rhachis angular. Spikelet packing imbricate, irregular, 4–6-rowed.

Spikelets
Spikelets clustered at each node or in pairs. Pedicels scabrous. Fertile spikelets 2-flowered, comprising 1 fertile floret, lower floret sterile, upper fertile, without rhachilla extension, elliptic or obovate, dorsally compressed, gibbous, cuspidate, 3–4 mm long, 1.9–2.5 mm wide, persistent on plant. Rhachilla internodes brief up to lowest fertile floret.

Glumes
Glumes dissimilar, thinner than fertile lemma. Lower glume ovate, 1.1–1.6 mm long, 30–40% of length of spikelet, membranous, red or purple, 3–5-nerved. Lower glume margins ciliolate. Lower glume apex acute or acuminate, mucronate. Upper glume obovate, dorsally convex in profile, 3.1–4 mm long, membranous, red or purple, 5-nerved. Upper glume surface hispidulous. Upper glume apex acute or acuminate, mucronate.

Florets
Basal sterile floret 1, with palea. Lemma of lower sterile floret similar to upper glume, ovate, 3.1–4 mm long, 100% of length of spikelet, membranous or chartaceous, 7-nerved, pubescent, acuminate, muticous or awned. Awn of lower sterile floret 10–20 mm long. Fertile lemma ovate, gibbous, 2.5–3.5 mm long, indurate, much thinner above, of similar consistency on margins, glossy, 5-nerved. Lemma margins involute. Lemma apex acute or acuminate, laterally pinched, muticous. Palea reflexed at apex, indurate. Anthers 3.

Continental Distribution:
Temperate Asia, Australasia, Pacific.

Australian Distribution:
Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania.

Western Australia: Gardner, Dampier, Menzies. South Australia: Eastern, Northern Lofty, Murray, Southern Lofty, Kangaroo Island, South-eastern. Queensland: Cook, Port Curtis, Leichhardt, Darling Downs, Moreton, Warrego, Maranoa. New South Wales: Central Coast, Central Tablelands, Southern Tablelands, North-Western Slopes, Central-Western Slopes, North-Western Plains, South-Western Plains. Victoria: Murray Mallee, Wannon, Midlands, Gippsland Plains, East Gippsland. Tasmania: East Coast.

Classification. (GPWG 2001):
Panicoideae

Notes
Native. Grown for forage and bird seed and frequently escapes cultivation. Flowers Sept.–Apr.

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