Common name
Many-Flowered Millet Grass
Rice Millet

Derivation
Piptatherum P.Beauv., Ess. Agrostogr. 17 (1812); from the Greek pipto (to fall) and ather (a spike, as of ear of wheat), alluding to the awns dropping readily from the lemmas.

miliaceum- resembling Milium.

Published in
Notes Pl. Crit. 129 (1851).

Common synonyms
Oryzopsis miliacea (L.) Benth. & Hook.f. ex Asch. & C.Schweinf.

Habit
Perennial, tufted. Culms erect or geniculately ascending, 100–150 cm tall. Leaf-sheaths striately nerved, smooth. Ligule an eciliate membrane, 2–4 mm long, membranous, truncate or obtuse. Leaf-blades flat or convolute, 15–30 cm long, 5–10 mm wide, coriaceous, rigid. Leaf-blade surface ribbed, scaberulous. Leaf-blade margins scaberulous. Leaf-blade apex attenuate.

Inflorescence
Inflorescence compound, a panicle, exserted. Panicle open, ovate, 15–40 cm long. Primary panicle branches 4–8-nate, whorled at most nodes. Panicle branches scaberulous.

Spikelets
Spikelets solitary. Fertile spikelets 1-flowered, comprising 1 fertile floret, without rhachilla extension, elliptic, dorsally compressed, 3 mm long, breaking up at maturity. Spikelets disarticulating below each fertile floret.

Glumes
Glumes persistent, similar, thinner than fertile lemma. Lower glume elliptic, 3–3.5 mm long, equalling upper glume, membranous, 3-nerved. Lower glume apex acuminate. Upper glume elliptic, 3–3.5 mm long, 120% of length of adjacent fertile lemma, membranous, 3-nerved. Upper glume apex acuminate.

Florets
Fertile lemma ovate, dorsally compressed, 2.5 mm long, coriaceous, dark brown, glossy, 3-nerved. Lemma surface smooth, glabrous. Lemma margins convolute, covering most of palea. Lemma apex obtuse,1-awned. Median (principal) awn straight or flexuous, 2–5 mm long overall, with a straight or slightly twisted column or with a twisted column, deciduous. Column with 0.01 mm long hairs. Palea coriaceous, 2-nerved, without keels.

Continental Distribution:
Europe, Africa, Temperate Asia, Australasia, North America, South America.

Australian Distribution:
Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania.

Western Australia: Drummond, Dale. South Australia: Flinders Ranges, Eyre Peninsula, Northern Lofty, Murray, Yorke Peninsula, Southern Lofty, Kangaroo Island, South-eastern. New South Wales: Central Coast, Northern Tablelands, Southern Tablelands, Central-Western Slopes, South-Western Slopes, South-Western Plains, North Far Western Plains, South Far Western Plains. Victoria: Murray Mallee, Lowan Mallee, Wimmera, Wannon, Riverina, Midlands, Victorian Volcanic Plain, Gippsland Plains. Tasmania: North West, Midlands, East Coast.

Classification. (GPWG 2001):
Pooideae: Stipeae

Notes

Widely distributed in the southern half of Australia; used to stabilise mine dumps in moist and semi-arid regions, and frequently spreading from such plantings.