Common name
Channel Millet

Derivation
Echinochloa P.Beauv., Ess. Agrostogr. 53 (1812); from the Greek echinos (hedgehog) and chloe (grass), alluding to the echinate inflorescence branches.

turneriana- in honour of Fred Turner (1856–1939). English-born Australian botanist.

Published in
Fl. South Australia. 2nd edn 1: 72 (1943).

Habit
Annual. Stolons absent. Culms erect or geniculately ascending, 15–130 cm tall, 3–6-noded. Mid-culm nodes glabrous. Leaf-sheaths glabrous on surface. Ligule a fringe of hairs or absent. Collar glabrous. Leaf-blades 5–30 cm long, 4–15 mm wide. Leaf-blade surface smooth, glabrous. Leaf-blade margins smooth or scaberulous or scabrous, glabrous or ciliate, hairy at base. Leaf-blade apex acuminate.

Inflorescence
Inflorescence compound, a panicle of racemes, exserted. Racemes numerous, closely spaced, appressed, unilateral, 1–4 cm long, bearing 10–30 fertile spikelets on each. Central inflorescence axis 2.5–13 cm long, glabrous. Rhachis subterete, scabrous on margins. Spikelet packing 4-rowed.

Spikelets
Spikelets clustered at each node or in pairs, subequal. Pedicels unequal, 0.2–1.1 mm long, scabrous. Fertile spikelets 2-flowered, comprising 1 fertile floret, lower floret male, upper fertile, without rhachilla extension, elliptic or ovate, dorsally compressed, gibbous, cuspidate, 4–5.7 mm long, 1.7–2.2 mm wide, falling entire. Rhachilla internodes brief up to lowest fertile floret.

Glumes
Glumes dissimilar, thinner than fertile lemma. Lower glume ovate, clasping, 1.5–2.2 mm long, 33–50% of length of spikelet, membranous or chartaceous, 3–7-nerved. Lower glume surface scabrous. Lower glume apex acute, mucronate. Upper glume elliptic or ovate, 4–5.7 mm long, 100% of length of spikelet, membranous, 9-nerved. Upper glume surface scabrous. Upper glume apex acuminate or cuspidate, mucronate.

Florets
Basal sterile floret 1, with palea. Lemma of lower sterile floret similar to upper glume, ovate, 3.8–5.5 mm long, 100% of length of spikelet, membranous or chartaceous, 5–7-nerved, concave across back, scabrous, obtuse. Fertile lemma ovate, gibbous, 3.8–5.5 mm long, indurate, much thinner above, of similar consistency on margins, glossy. Lemma margins flat or involute. Lemma apex rostrate, laterally pinched, mucronate. Palea reflexed at apex, indurate. Anthers 3. Grain with adherent pericarp.

Continental Distribution:
Australasia.

Australian Distribution:
Northern Territory, South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales.

Northern Territory: Darwin & Gulf, Victoria River, Barkly Tableland, Central Australia North. South Australia: Lake Eyre. Queensland: Cook, Burke, North Kennedy, South Kennedy, Gregory North, Gregory South, Mitchell, Warrego, Maranoa. New South Wales: North-Western Plains.

Classification. (GPWG 2001):
Panicoideae

Notes
Native. Flowers sporadically throughout the year but mostly Mar.–July.

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