Guinea millet facts for kids

Guinea millet (also known as Brachiaria deflexa) is a type of millet grass. It's an annual plant, meaning it grows and dies within one year. This plant belongs to the large grass family, called Poaceae. You can find Guinea millet naturally in many parts of Africa, India, and Pakistan. It grows in both warm, wet tropical areas and drier, subtropical regions. For a long time, people have used it as an extra food source, especially when other crops are scarce.

What Guinea Millet Looks Like

Guinea millet is a grass that can grow up to about 70 centimeters (about 2.3 feet) tall. Its stems are thin and a bit weak, with fine hairs on them. Roots can grow from the lower parts of the stem.

The leaves grow in an alternating pattern along the stem. They are shaped like long, narrow spearheads and have a pale green sheath at their base. The plant's flowers grow in a cluster that looks like a panicle. This cluster has 7 to 15 smaller branches, called racemes, which can be 6 to 15 centimeters long. The tiny flowers, called spikelets, are oval-shaped and about 2 to 3.5 millimeters long.

Guinea millet usually takes about 90 to 130 days to grow from a seed to a mature plant. It can flower throughout the year. This grass is a "C4 species," which means it's very good at using sunlight and water. This helps it grow well in dry, sunny places.

Where Guinea Millet Grows

Scientists believe Guinea millet first grew in the African savanna. Specifically, it might have come from the Fouta Djallon plateau in northwestern Guinea. Today, you can find it across North Africa, from Senegal to Ethiopia. It also grows in parts of Southern Africa, like Maputaland and Limpopo.

In Asia, Guinea millet is found in northern India, in areas like Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. Later, it also started appearing in southern India, in Tamil Nadu. This shows that the plant has spread to new places over time. These regions often have dry climates, but it also grows in tropical areas.

Guinea millet can grow in many different conditions. However, it grows best in shady spots with soil that drains water well. This grass is known for being able to survive droughts, which means it can live even when there isn't much rain. You often find it growing along the edges of floodplains or temporary ponds, where the ground is wet for a while. It also grows as a shorter grass among tall trees.

How Guinea Millet is Related to Other Plants

Guinea millet is part of the Poaceae family, which includes many small millets. These millets are known for being very nutritious and tough, able to handle different climates. Guinea millet shares these traits. It can survive in harsh conditions like heat and drought. It's also pretty good at resisting diseases and insects.

Within its group, called the Brachiaria genus, Guinea millet is easy to tell apart from other species because of its unique flower cluster shape. However, it can sometimes be confused with fonio (Digitaria exilis), which is another grass in the Poaceae family. Guinea millet has bigger grains and grows faster than fonio. But it does need good drainage and rich soil to grow well.

You can also tell Guinea millet apart from other grasses by looking closely at its starch grains. These grains are always round and have a different texture compared to other grasses in the Poaceae family.

Scientists are still studying how the Brachiaria genus is different from another group called Urochloa. Some studies suggest they are very similar, while others point out differences. More research is needed to fully understand their family tree.

How People Use Guinea Millet

For hundreds of years, Guinea millet has been used as a grain, especially during times when food was scarce. In ancient Africa, people from the Songhai Empire and the Bamana Empire (both in modern-day Mali) ate this grass. They called it "paguiri" and "yaqué yaqué."

Today, in the Sahel region of Africa, local people and nomadic tribes still harvest Guinea millet. They use it as an extra food source. Small millets, like Guinea millet, are very tough and packed with nutrients. Guinea millet and other small grains are much better than some larger grains in terms of proteins, vitamins, fiber, and other important compounds.

This plant also has great farming qualities. It doesn't need a lot of water or pesticides to grow, which makes it easy to farm and manage. Because of this, small millets are seen as a good way to help with food shortages. Scientists are even studying if they can be used as a replacement for grains like rice and wheat.

Controlling Guinea Millet Growth

Sometimes, Guinea millet can grow too much in farm fields and become a weed. Because of this, people have tried to find ways to control its growth. Studies on cowpea farms have shown that a mix of hand-weeding (pulling weeds by hand) and using special plant-killing sprays (herbicides) works well.

One study found that Guinea millet made up over 14% of the grassy weeds in crop fields. This shows how common this grass can be among other crops.