| Description : |
Annual grass up to 70(–100) cm tall; stems (culms) solitary or tufted, slender, often weak and ascending. Leaves alternate, simple and entire; leaf sheath pale, striate, finely pubescent; ligule ciliate; blade broadly linear to narrowly lanceolate, 4–25 cm × 0.5–2.5 cm, velvety pubescent. Inflorescence panicle-like, composed of 5–15 racemes borne on an axis 6–15 cm long; racemes distant, widely spreading, 2–10 cm long, often with side-branches, bearing mostly paired distant spikelets. Spikelet up to 15 mm long stalked, broadly elliptical, 2–3.5 mm long, glabrous to pubescent, acute, 2-flowered with lower floret male or sterile and upper bisexual; lower glume up to half as long as spikelet, upper glume as long as spikelet, membranous, 7-veined; lemma of lower floret membranous, lemma of upper floret wrinkled and acute; palea of upper floret obtuse to acute; stamens 3; ovary superior, with 2 stigmas. Fruit a caryopsis (grain), ellipsoid, compressed.
Brachiaria comprises about 100 species distributed in the tropics and subtropics, mainly in the Old World. It has been proposed that Brachiaria be nearly completely reduced to Urochloa. Brachiaria deflexa is usually easily distinguishable from other Brachiaria species by its panicle-like inflorescence, which resembles that of Panicum spp. It intergrades with Brachiaria ramosa (L.) Stapf and is sometimes included in the latter. Guinea millet is often confused with fonio (Digitaria exilis (Kippist) Stapf). Compared to fonio, it has larger grains and it grows faster, but it requires higher soil fertility and better drainage. The cultivated type sown in the Fouta Djallon Highlands (called var. sativa Portères) differs from the wild types harvested elsewhere particularly by being totally glabrous and by having a branched stem and much larger grains; furthermore, it is non-shattering.
Some Guinea millet types mature in as little as 70–75 days, but most types take 90–130 days to reach maturity. Guinea millet follows the C4-cycle photosynthetic pathway. |