American Milletgrass

In Great Britain and/or Ireland:
Foodplant / parasite
Blumeria graminis parasitises live Milium effusum

Plant / resting place / within
puparium of Chromatomyia milii may be found in leaf-mine of Milium effusum
Other: major host/prey

This is a good forage grass. The culms are used for weaving.

Wood Millet is common in mesophytic forests, especially in Kashmir. 2000-4000m.

Perennial loosely tufted or solitary with slender rhizome. Culms 60-160 cm tall, 1-3 mm in diameter. Blades broadly linear-lanceolate, 10-20 cm long, 5-15 mm wide, soft, glabrous; ligule membranous, tongue-shaped, 5-10 mm long. Panicle loose, open, up to 20 cm long, branches 4-8-nate, whorled. Spikelets 1-flowered, 3 mm long, elliptical; glumes equal, 3 mm long, broadly lanceolate, chartaceous, 3-nerved; lemmas elliptical, 2.5 mm long, weakly 5-nerved, coriaceous, margins inrolled, enclosing the palea; palea oblong, 2.5 mm long, faintly 2-nerved, coricaceous. Caryopsis elliptical, 2 mm long.

Perennial, shortly rhizomatous. Culms loosely tufted, erect, slender, 0.9–1.5 m tall, smooth, glabrous, 3–5-noded. Leaf sheaths loose, slightly inflated, glabrous; leaf blades broadly linear to linear-lanceolate, thin, soft, 10–30 cm, 5–15 mm wide, glabrous, abaxial surface gray-green, adaxial surface green, margins scaberulous, apex acute; ligule lanceolate, 2–10 mm. Panicle ovate or pyramidal in outline, very lax, 10–30 cm; branches in clusters of up to 6, slender, flexuous, spreading or deflexed, smooth or scabrid, lower part bare. Spikelets 3–4 mm, gray-green or tinged with purple; glumes elliptic-ovate, scaberulous, margins white, apex acute; lemma glossy, milky-white when young, brown at maturity. Anthers 2–3 mm. Fl. and fr. May–Jul. 2n = 14, 28.

Tufted, shortly rhizomatous perennial; culms 45-180cm high, usually erect. Leaf-blades flat, 10-30cm long, 5-15mm wide, glabrous. Panicle ovate or pyramidal, 10-40cm long, very lax and up to 20 cm wide, the branches in groups of up to 6, flexuous, spreading or deflexed. Spikelets 3-4mm long, pale green, rarely purple; glumes ovate to ovate-elliptic, membranous with hyaline margins; lemma slightly shorter than the glumes or as long as them.

Widely distributed in Europe and Asia.

Anhui, Gansu, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Afghanistan, Bhutan, Japan, E Kazakhstan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan; SW Asia, Europe, North America].

Distribution: Pakistan (Punjab, N.W.F.P. & Kashmir); Europe, temperate Asia and North America.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: July-August.

Forests, moist shady places; 700–3500 m.

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems geniculate, decumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at nodes, Ste ms caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems with inflorescence 1-2 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly basal, below middle of stem, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades lanceolate, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades 1-2 cm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence an open panicle, openly paniculate, branches spreading, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence lax, widely spreading, branches drooping, pendulous, Inflorescence branches more than 10 to numerous, Flowers bisexual, Spike lets pedicellate, Spikelets dorsally compressed or terete, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 1 fertile floret, Spikelets with 3-7 florets, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating above the glumes, glumes persistent, Spikelets disarticulating beneath or between the florets, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes equal or subequal, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glume equal to or longer than spikelet, Glumes 3 nerved, Lemma coriaceous, firmer or thicker in texture than the glumes, Lemma becoming indurate, enclosing palea and caryopsis, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma apex truncate, rounded, or obtuse, Lemma awnless, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea about equal to lemma, Palea longer than lemma, Palea 2 nerved or 2 keeled, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched , Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear.

Milium effusum, the American milletgrass or wood millet, is a species of flowering plant in the grass family Poaceae, native to damp forests of the Holarctic Kingdom.

The Latin specific epithet effusum means "spreading loosely".