Brachiaria deflexa (PROTA)

Plant Resources of Tropical Africa Introduction

List of species

General importance
Geographic coverage Africa
Geographic coverage World
Cereal / pulse
Forage / feed
Food security

Brachiaria deflexa (Schumach.) Robyns

Protologue: Bull. Jard. Bot. Etat. 9(3): 181 (1932).

Family: Poaceae (Gramineae)

Chromosome number: 2n = 18, 36

Synonyms

• Pseudobrachiaria deflexa (Schumach.) Launert (1970).

Vernacular names

• Guinea millet, animal fonio, false signal grass (En).
• Fonio à grosses graines, gros fonio, millet de Guinée, kolo rassé (Fr).
• Jégé (Po).

Origin and geographic distribution

Guinea millet is a semi-domesticated weed of the African savanna. It is found from Cape Verde and Senegal eastward to Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia and southward to South Africa; it also occurs in western Asia to Pakistan and India.

Uses

Guinea millet is considered to belong to the ‘kreb’ grasses, a group of grasses occurring in the Sahel region and collected for human consumption, especially in time of food shortage. In the Fouta Djallon Highlands on the Guinea-Mali border the grain of a cultivated type is ground into flour used to make cakes and fritters. Guinea millet provides excellent forage.

Properties

Guinea millet has soft grains that are easily ground into flour.

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.

Other botanical information

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.

Ecology

Guinea millet is found from sea-level up to 1500 m altitude in open woodland, forest margins and as a weed of cultivated land and disturbed soils, often preferring slightly shady locations. It is considered drought-resistant. Brachiaria deflexa needs fertile and well-drained soils for optimum growth.

Management

Guinea millet is mostly collected from the wild, but farmers sometimes encourage its invasion into cereal fields and it is sown as a cereal in the Fouta Djallon Highlands. Farmers also sometimes sow fast-maturing Guinea millet types to fill in gaps in a field sown with fonio, sorghum, maize or other cereals.

Genetic resources

Guinea millet collections are held at CIAT (Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, Cali, Colombia, 16 accessions) and in Kenya (National Genebank of Kenya, Crop Plant Genetic Resources Centre, Kikuyu, Muguga, 5 accessions). In view of its wide distribution, Guinea millet seems not threatened by genetic erosion. The Guinea millet cultivar sown in the Fouta Djallon Highlands may have potential for further selection.

Prospects

Too little is known about Guinea millet to make an accurate assessment of its potential as a food plant. More information is needed on its nutritional properties, agronomy, ecological requirements and genetic diversity. The wild type will remain a valuable fodder plant for dry regions, due to its drought resistance and excellent fodder characteristics.

Major references

• Burkill, H.M., 1994. The useful plants of West Tropical Africa. 2nd Edition. Volume 2, Families E–I. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom. 636 pp.

• Clayton, W.D. & Renvoize, S.A., 1982. Gramineae (part 3). In: Polhill, R.M. (Editor). Flora of Tropical East Africa. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, Netherlands. pp. 451–898.

• Gibbs Russell, G.E., Watson, L., Koekemoer, M., Smook, L., Barker, N.P., Anderson, H.M. & Dallwitz, M.J., 1990. Grasses of Southern Africa: an identification manual with keys, descriptions, distributions, classification and automated identification and information retrieval from computerized data. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No 58. National Botanic Gardens / Botanical Research Institute, Pretoria, South Africa. 437 pp.

• National Research Council, 1996. Lost crops of Africa. Volume 1: grains. National Academy Press, Washington D.C., United States. 383 pp.

• Portères, R., 1976. African cereals: Eleusine, fonio, black fonio, teff, Brachiaria, paspalum, Pennisetum, and African rice. In: Harlan, J.R., de Wet, J.M.J. & Stemler, A.B.L. (Editors). Origins of African plant domestication. Mouton Publishers, The Hague, Netherlands. pp. 409–452.

Other references

• Basappa, G.P., Muniyamma, M. & Chinnappa, C.C., 1987. An investigation of chromosome numbers in the genus Brachiaria (Poaceae: Paniceae) in relation to morphology and taxonomy. Canadian Journal of Botany 65: 2297–2309.

• Baudet, J.C., 1981. Les céréales mineures: bibliographie analytique. Agence de Coopération Culturelle et Technique, Paris, France. 134 pp.

• Clayton, W.D., 1972. Gramineae. In: Hepper, F.N. (Editor). Flora of West Tropical Africa. 2nd Edition. Volume 3, part 2. pp. 277–574.

• Clayton, W.D., 1989. Gramineae (Paniceae, Isachneae and Arundinelleae). In: Launert, E. & Pope, G.V. (Editors). Flora Zambesiaca. Volume 10, part 3. Flora Zambesiaca Managing Committee, London, United Kingdom. 231 pp.

• Cope, T.A., 1995. Poaceae (Gramineae). In: Thulin, M. (Editor). Flora of Somalia. Volume 4. Angiospermae (Hydrocharitaceae-Pandanaceae). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom. pp. 148–270.

• de Wet, J.M.J., 1995. Minor cereals. In: Smartt, J. & Simmonds, N.W. (Editors). Evolution of crop plants. 2nd Edition. Longman, London, United Kingdom. pp. 202–208.

• Fröman, B. & Persson, S., 1974. An illustrated guide to the grasses of Ethiopia. CADU (Chilalo Agricultural Development Unit), Asella, Ethiopia. 504 pp.

• Hanelt, P. & Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (Editors), 2001. Mansfeld’s encyclopedia of agricultural and horticultural crops (except ornamentals). 1st English edition. Springer Verlag, Berlin, Germany. 3645 pp.

• Phillips, S., 1995. Poaceae (Gramineae). In: Hedberg, I. & Edwards, S. (Editors). Flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea. Volume 7. Poaceae (Gramineae). The National Herbarium, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Department of Systematic Botany, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden. 420 pp.

• van der Hoek, H.N. & Jansen, P.C.M., 1996. Minor cereals. In: Grubben, G.J.H. & Partohardjono, S. (Editors). Plant Resources of SouthEast Asia No 10. Cereals. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden, Netherlands. pp. 150–156.

Author(s)

• M. Brink, PROTA Network Office Europe, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 341, 6700 AH Wageningen, Netherlands

Correct citation of this article

Brink, M., 2006. Brachiaria deflexa (Schumach.) C.E.Hubb. ex Robyns. In: Brink, M. & Belay, G. (Editors). PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa / Ressources végétales de l’Afrique tropicale), Wageningen, Netherlands. Accessed 18 December 2024.

• See the Prota4U database.