Diversity in Kodo millet,Paspalum scrobiculatum

Abstract

a s a d a R a o ,3 M . H. M e n g e s h a ,3 a n d D . E . B r i n k 2Paspalum scrobiculatum is widely distributed in damp habitats across the Old World tropics. It is harvested as a wild cereal in w est Africa and in India. The species was dom esticated in India som e 3,000 yr ago. It is grown in India from Kerala and Tamil N adu in the south, to Rajasthan, U ttar Pradesh and West Bengal in the north. K odo millet is variable but lacks racial differentiation. The species was apparently dom esticated across its range o f present-day cultivation. Hybridization with wild P. scrobiculatum, which commonly invades fields o f kodo millet, obscures racial differentiation. W eedy kodo is harvested with the crop, making it difficult to distinguish wild and cultivated com plexes o f P. scrobicula tum. Wild, w eed and cultivated kinds m erge in all characters studied.The genus Paspalum (Gramineae) includes some 400 species that extend across the warmer regions of the world. Paspalum scrobiculatum L. occurs throughout the Old World tropics. It is cultivated in India. Cultivated plants are grown as annuals, but many cultivars root at the lower nodes and, under favorable con ditions, continue to produce culms after the older shoots have flowered and ma tured their inflorescences. Wild P. scrobiculatum is perennial. In southern India wild plants invade fields of planted kodo millet, and the spikelets of these weeds are often as large as those of the crop.Paspalum scrobiculatum occurs in moist or shady places across the tropics and subtropics of the Old World. The species is recognized, as demonstrated by Clayton (1975), to include the African P. orbiculare Forst. f., P. polystachyum R. Br., and P. cartilagineum Presl with usually smaller spikelets (1.8-2.5 mm long) than those of Indian wild specimens (2.5-3.5 mm). These taxa merge com pletely, not only in spikelet morphology, but also in overall inflorescence mor phology and vegetative traits. Plants are slender to stout, up to 90 cm tall, and often root from the lower nodes. Leaf blades are linear, glabrous or pubescent, up to 40 cm long, with the basal leaf sheaths glabrous or pilose. Inflorescences are composed of rarely more than 5 racemes (3-7) that are alternately arranged on a short to elongated primary axis. Racemes are up to 13 cm long, with the subsessile spikelets arranged in 2 rows along one side of a flattened rachis. Spike lets are glabrous, orbicular to broadly elliptic in outline, conspicuously plano convex, 1.8-3.5 mm long, and never awned. The lower glume is absent, and the upper glume is as long as the spikelet. The lower lemma is almost flat, more or less membranaceous and without a palea or floret. The upper lemma is crustaceous, often brown and shiny when grains are mature, and embraces the crustaceous palea. The grain is elliptic-orbicular in outline and 1.5-2.5 mm long.

Southern Neolithic Cultivation Systems: A Reconstruction based on Archaeobotanical Evidence

“…Setaria pumila (yellow foxtail) when cultivated is reported to be sown in June-July and reaped October-November (Gammie 1911, p. 4). Other native small millets are similar, including kodo millet and little millet and the latter is noted for its sometimes very rapid maturation in two-and-a-half months (Rachie 1975;Grubben and Partohardjono 1996;De Wet et al 1983a;1983b); the wild little millet (P. sumatrense ssp. psilopodium) is reported to germinate after the first rains (late June) and to set seed at the end of October in the Varanasi area of north India (Sant 1964).…”

Genetic variation in polyploid forage grass: Assessing the molecular genetic variability in the Paspalumgenus

“…atratum Swallen (Plicatula group) has been the object of growing interest for use as forage in areas that are subjected to periodic flooding in Florida (USA), northeastern Argentina, Brazil, Thailand, the Philippines and Australia [18]. In addition, Paspalum scrobiculatum L. (‘Kodo millet’, Plicatula group) is cultivated in India as a cereal crop [3,20], and Paspalum vaginatum Sw. (Disticha group) [21] and P . notatum [19] are widely grown as turf grass.…”

Forming Core Collections in Barnyard, Kodo, and Little Millets using Morphoagronomic Descriptors

“…The ploidy levels in barnyard millet range from tetraploid to hexaploid to octaploid, while kodo and little millets are tetraploids (de Wet et al, 1983;Wanous, 1990). These species also differ in ploidy levels.…”