Pennisetum glaucum

• Botanical Name : Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.
• Synonyms : Pennisetum typhoides (Burm. f.) Stapf & C. E. Hubb.
• Common Name : Bajri, Pearl Millet
• Plant Family : Poaceae (Gramineae)

• According to the Rules of ICBN the names of the families should end in -aceae. Thus the new name for the family Gramineae became Poaceae. However, the name Gramineae is also exempted and conserved under 'Nomina Conservanda' because of their constant use for a long time.

• Plant Form : Herb
• Occurrence (Sectors) : 24
• Occurrence (Special Areas) : Indroda Park

About Pennisetum glaucum Plant :

• Habit : An annual herb with stem erect simple or branched from the root, slender or stout, solid, leafy, upper nodes glabrous or woolly, lower rooting.
• Leaves : Lanceolate, spreading and drooping, flat more or less hairy, midrib stout or slender, sheath rather inflated, ligule of hairs.
• Inflorescence :
  • Spike with more or less woolly peduncle below.
  • Spikes erect, cylindric, dense-fid, rachis hairy or woolly, branchlets 1-8 fid, concealed by the densely packed spikelets, bristles of involucel more or less unilateral, as long as the spikelets or longer, scabrid and ciliate, white-spikelets, usually solitary in the involucel, oblong, ovate or ovate-lanceolatepedicelled, pedicel ciliate, glume first minute or 0, half-orbicular or subquadrate, 1-3 nerved, second very variable in length, sometimes absent, fourth subquadrate, truncate, obtuse or retuse 3-nerved, very rarely as long as fourth and coriaceous, third ovate-oblong, obtuse or truncate and apiculate, 5-nerved, epaleate or paleate, and male or neuter, rarely bisexual, fourth coriaceous or herbaceous,oate, 5-7 nerved, palea very broad, truncate, ciliate at the tip and dorsally, nerves and approximate excurrent.
  • Lodicules 0.Anthers linear.
• Fruit : Grain oblong, obovoid or pyriform, smooth, free and top exposed.
• Flowering and Fruiting Time : September - November and March - May
• Significance :
  • It serves as a staple food grain in many parts of the state.
  • It is a nourishing food.
  • The straw is utilized as an inferior fodder in more or all the states of the country.
  • It is considered inferior to cereal straws. It is not relished by cattle.