Scientific Name
Other Names
Life Form
Family
Foddder-Animal food used in many countries as a grain, forage or silage crop for many animals. Food- Grains have been used for human consumption in Central America, Asia and Africa.
Mexico to America
Thrives in the Himalayas, and Western Ghats, at an elevation up to 1200 m.
It is annual herb with sometimes red-tinged erect stems.
Stem is erect or ascending, 30-150 cm long, usually branched.
Leaves are ovate to rhombic-ovate, elliptic, lanceolate-oblong, or lanceolate, blades 1-12 cm long, 0.89-6 cm wide, smooth, leaft stalk 1-9 cm long.
Flowers are green, in axillary clusters in the lower part of the plant and in unbranched or branched spikes in the upper part, the lower clusters entirely without stamens as are the lower flowers of the spikes, the upper flowers in the spikes staminate.
Fruit is tiny, one-seeded, enclosed in papery bracts.
Flowering: throughout the year in warm climates.