Milium effusum
Milium
American milletgrass, millet diffus, millet grass, wood millet
milletgrass
55-140 cm, erect from decumbent bases, glabrous;
nodes 3-5.
10-180 cm, glabrous or hispidulous;
nodes 2-5, glabrous.
glabrous;
ligules 3-9 mm, obtuse, erose;
blades 5-26 cm long, 8-17 mm wide, flat, glabrous, equally distributed on the culms.
open, smooth or scabrous;
auricles absent;
ligules hyaline, glabrous, obtuse to acute;
blades flat, smooth or scabrous over the veins.
10-27 cm;
branches 1-9 cm, in pairs or fascicles, flexuous, spreading or drooping, scabrous, with spikelets mainly near the distal ends.
open panicles;
branches drooping to ascending, smooth or scabrous, some branches longer than 1 cm.
pedicellate, dorsally compressed, with 1 floret;
rachillas not prolonged beyond the base of the floret;
disarticulation above the glumes, beneath the floret.
2.5-5 mm, scabrous, 3-veined, acute to acuminate;
lemmas 2.3-3 mm, acute;
anthers 1.5-2 mm.
equal, equaling or exceeding the lemmas, membranous, smooth or scabrous, unawned;
calluses blunt, glabrous;
lemmas dark, coriaceous, glabrous, lustrous, obscurely 5-veined, margins involute, apices unawned;
paleas similar to the lemmas and partly enfolded by them;
lodicules 2, free, glabrous, toothed or not;
anthers 3;
ovaries glabrous.
shorter than the lemmas, concealed at maturity, glabrous;
hila 1/5 to nearly 1/2 the length of the caryopses.
= 4, 5,7,9.
= 14, 28.
Milium effusum
Milium
Milium effusum is widespread in temperate to subarctic regions in the Northern Hemisphere. North American plants belong to M. effusum var. cisatlanticum Fernald, an elegant native grass that grows in woodlands in eastern North America. It differs from M. effusum L. var. effusum, which grows from Europe to Asia and Japan, in having 2-3 panicle branches at most nodes and spikelets 2.5-5 mm long, rather than 4-5 panicle branches at most nodes and spikelets about 3 mm long. A cultivar of M. effusum, 'Aureum', is grown for its yellowish leaves.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Milium is a circumtemperate genus of four species. All the species grow in mesic to dry mixed woods and dry open habitats. Milium effusum is native to the Flora region; M. vernale has become established.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Plants perennial; blades 8-17 mm wide; panicles 10-27 cm long; lemmas 2.3-3 mm long | M. effusum |
1. Plants annual; blades 1.9-5 mm wide; panicles 4-11.5 cm long; lemmas 2-2.3 mm long | M. vernale |
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