Billion Dollar Grass

Echinochloa frumentacea is cultivated both for grain and as a forage crop. It is thought to be a cultivated derivative of E. colona that arose in India and perhaps Africa.

Echinochloa frumentacea is cultivated in the hotter parts of Asia and Africa. Yabuno (in Cytologia 27:296-305.1962; and in Jap. J. Bot. 19:277-323.1966) discusses its cytology and regards it as a derivative of Echinochloa colona. These two species are distinct enough in Asia, but in Africa, where Echinochloa frumentacea occurs spontaneously, they intergrade with one another and are separated rather arbitrarily according to the density of the inflorescence.

Annuals; culms stout, to 10 mm in diam., less than 120 cm high. Blades linear, acuminate, scabrous, 10-40 cm long, 10-20 mm wide, margins cartilaginous, white; ligule absent; sheath glabrous, loose, shorter than internode. Panicle erect, main axis ridged, stout, ridges scabrid, tubercle bristled; branches curved, densely flowered. Spikelets usually purplish, broadly ovate, 3-4 mm long, awnless or sometimes mucronate; lower glume small, 1/3-3/5 as long as spikelet; upper glume slightly shorter than spikelet, usually awn-tipped, lower lemma staminate; upper floret protruding above glumes when mature, mucronate, smooth and shining, margins inrolled, enveloping upper palea, but upper part free.

Annual. Culms robust, erect, 1–1.5 m tall. Leaf sheaths smooth and glabrous; leaf blades linear, soft, 15–40 × 1–2.4 cm, glabrous, margins thickened and wavy. Inflorescence erect, lanceolate, 10–20 cm, axis robust, scabrous along edges and with tubercle-based hairs; racemes 1–3 cm, curved, simple, closely spaced and overlapping. Spikelets greenish, tardily deciduous, plump, ovate-elliptic to rotund, 2.5–3.5 mm, pubescent to hispid, awnless; lower glume 1/3–2/5 as long as spikelet; upper glume slightly shorter than spikelet; lower lemma herbaceous, sterile; upper lemma 2–3 mm. Caryopsis long persistent, eventually falling. Fl. and fr. Aug–Sep. 2n = 36, 54.

Robust annual; culms 30-150 cm high, erect. leaf-blades often broad, 5-30 cm long, 3-20 mm wide; ligule absent; sheaths glabrous. Inflorescence lanceolate, 6-20 cm long, the racemes several-rowed with crowded spikelets, 1-3 cm long, simple, closely spaced and overlapping. Spikelets broadly elliptic to rotund, 2.5-3.5 mm long, plump and sometimes gaping, ± tardily deciduous, mostly yellowish or pallid, pubescent to hispid; lower lemma acute; upper lemma 2-3 mm long.

Widely cultivated in the warmer parts of Asia and Africa.

Distribution: Pakistan (Sind, Baluchistan & Punjab); tropical East Africa south-wards to Rhodesia; India; Australia.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: Mainly September-October, but also sporadically earlier in the year.

A crop plant. Anhui, Guangxi, Guizhou, Heilongjiang, Henan, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan [cultivated in Africa and tropical Asia].

Panicum frumentaceum Roxb., Fl. Ind. 1: 307. 1820.

Panicum frumentaceum Roxburgh, Fl. Ind. 1: 307. 1820, not Salisbury (1796); Echinochloa colona (Linnaeus) Link var. frumentacea Ridley; E. crusgalli (Linnaeus) P. Beauvois var. edulis Hitchcock, nom. illeg. superfl.; E. crusgalli var. frumen-tacea (Link) W. P. Wight; Oplismenus frumentaceus (Link) Kunth.

Annuals, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem internodes solid or spongy, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems with inflorescence 1-2 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smo oth, glabrous, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades 1-2 cm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blade with prominently raised or widened midvein, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence a panicle with narrowly racemose or spicate branches, Inflorescence a panicle with digitately arranged spicate branches, Inflorescence branches more than 10 to numerous, Inflorescence branches 1-sided, Rachis angular, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets sessile or subsessile, Spikelets dorsally compressed or terete, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 1 fertile floret, Spikelets with 2 florets, Spikelet with 1 fertile floret and 1-2 sterile florets, Spikelets paired at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets in paired units, 1 sessile, 1 pedicellate, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating be low the glumes, Spikelets secund, in rows on one side of rachis, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes distinctly unequal, Glumes shorter than adjacent lemma, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glumes awned, awn 1-5 mm or longer, Glume surface hairy, villous or pilose, Glumes 4-7 nerved, Lemma coriaceous, firmer or thicker in texture than the glumes, Lemma becoming indurate, enclosing palea and caryopsis, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma body or surface hairy, Lemma apex acute or acuminate, Lemma awnless, Lemma margins inrolled, tightly covering palea and caryopsis, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea longer than lemma, Palea 2 nerved or 2 keeled, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis white.

Echinochloa frumentacea (Indian barnyard millet, sawa millet, or billion dollar grass) is a species of Echinochloa. Both Echinochloa frumentacea and E. esculenta are called Japanese millet. This millet is widely grown as a cereal in India, Pakistan, and Nepal. Its wild ancestor is the tropical grass Echinochloa colona, but the exact date or region of domestication is uncertain. It is cultivated on marginal lands where rice and other crops will not grow well. The grains are cooked in water, like rice, or boiled with milk and sugar. Sometimes it is fermented to make beer. While also being part of staple diet for some communities in India, these seeds are, in particular, (cooked and) eaten during religious fasting (willingly abstaining from some types of food / food ingredients). For this reason, these seeds are commonly also referred to as "vrat ke chawal" in Hindi (i.e., "rice for fasting", literally). Other common names to identify these seeds include oodalu (ಊದಲು) in Kannada, Shyamak (শ্যামাক) or Shyama Chal (শ্যামা চাল) in Bangla, jhangora in the Garhwal Hills, bhagar (भगर) in Marathi-speaking areas, samo or morio (mario, moraiaya) seeds in Gujarati, or kuthiraivaali (குதிரைவாளி) in Tamil.