Common name
Siberian Millet
Shirohie Millet

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

frumentacea- from the Latin frumentum (pertaining to grain) and -acea (resembling). Species serving as cereals or suspected of being suitable as cereals.

Published in
Hort. Reg. Bot. Berol. 1: 204 (1827).

Habit
Annual. Culms erect, robust, 30–150 cm tall, 5–8-noded. Leaf-sheaths glabrous on surface. Ligule absent. Collar glabrous. Leaf-blades 8–35 cm long, 5–22 mm wide. Leaf-blade surface smooth. Leaf-blade margins scabrous.

Inflorescence
Inflorescence compound, a panicle of racemes, embraced at base by subtending leaf. Racemes numerous, closely spaced (inflorescence lanceolate), unilateral, 1–3 cm long, simple. Central inflorescence axis 6–20 cm long. Rhachis angular, glabrous or pilose on surface. Spikelet packing imbricate, 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 ovate or orbicular, slightly dorsally compressed, gibbous, acuminate, 2.5–3.5 mm long, 1.7–2 mm wide, persistent on plant. Rhachilla internodes brief up to lowest fertile floret.

Glumes
Glumes dissimilar, thinner than fertile lemma. Lower glume ovate, 0.8–1.6 mm long, 30–40% of length of spikelet, membranous, pallid or yellow, 3–5-nerved. Lower glume surface pubescent or hispid. Lower glume apex acute, muticous or mucronate. Upper glume ovate, dorsally convex in profile, 2.4–3 mm long, membranous, pallid or yellow, 3–7-nerved. Upper glume surface pubescent or hispid. Upper glume apex acute or cuspidate, muticous or mucronate.

Florets
Basal sterile floret 1, with palea or without significant palea. Lemma of lower sterile floret similar to upper glume, ovate, 2.4–3 mm long, equalling spikelet, membranous or chartaceous, 5–7-nerved, pubescent or hispid, acute. Fertile florets bisexual. Fertile lemma ovate, gibbous, 2–3 mm long, cartilaginous or indurate, much thinner above, of similar consistency on margins, glossy, 5-nerved. Lemma margins involute. Lemma apex acute, laterally pinched, mucronate. Palea reflexed at apex, indurate. Anthers 3. Grain exposed between gaping lemma and palea at maturity.

Continental Distribution:
Africa, Temperate Asia, Tropical Asia, Australasia, South America.

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

Western Australia: Gardner, Fitzgerald, Dampier, Menzies. Queensland: North Kennedy, South Kennedy, Port Curtis, Burnett, Wide Bay, Darling Downs, Moreton, Mitchell, Warrego, Maranoa. New South Wales: North Coast, Central Coast, Northern Tablelands, North-Western Slopes, North-Western Plains, South-Western Plains. Victoria: Wimmera, Midlands, Gippsland Plains. Tasmania: East Coast.

Classification. (GPWG 2001):
Panicoideae

Notes
Introduced. Flowers Oct.–May. The relationship between Echinochloa frumentacea and Echinochloa utilis is not clear, and they intergrade morphologically.

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