Piptatherum holciforme
Hairy millet grass seeds (Piptatherum holciforme)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Clade: Commelinids
Order: Poales
Family: Poaceae
Subfamily: Pooideae
Genus: Piptatherum
Species:
P. holciforme
Binomial name
Piptatherum holciforme
Synonyms[1]
  • Agrostis holciformis M.Bieb.
  • Milium coerulescens var. holciforme (M. Bieb.) Regel
  • Milium holciforme (M.Bieb.) Spreng.
  • Oryzopsis coerulescens var. grandis Pamp.
  • Oryzopsis grandis (Pamp.) Maire & Weiller
  • Oryzopsis holciformis (M.Bieb.) Hack.
  • Oryzopsis holciformis var. glabra (Freitag) D.Heller
  • Oryzopsis kopetdaghensis Roshev.
  • Piptatherum holciforme var. glabrum Freitag
  • Piptatherum karataviense Roshev.
  • Urachne holciformis (M.Bieb.) K.Koch
  • Urachne sinaica Steud.

Piptatherum holciforme is a species of perennial cereal grass known by the common names rice grass, hairy ricegrass, and hairy millet grass, endemic to Eurasia, especially the Mediterranean basin. The seed of the plant is a type of grain millet that can be ground into meal and prepared as a porridge.

Description

Piptatherum holciforme stands erect about 50-80 cm., having dissected leaves branched from its base, growing in clusters of several propagation runners. The stems are sessile, slightly tilting forward because of the weight of the inflorescence, each made up of 3-4 internodes.

The grains are borne upon a panicle, consisting of spikelets with a short caducous awn; each grain being ovoid in shape, pointed at one end and having a shiny black appearance. Each seedling bears micro-hairs. The seed and the lower chaff that encloses the seed of the Piptatherum holciforme are the largest and longest of all species of Piptatherum that grow in Israel and they reach a length of 1–1.5 cm., without the awn (spikelets).

The plant's modern taxonomic name was described in 1817 by the Swiss botanist and entomologist Johann Jacob Roemer (1763-1819) and his colleague, the Austrian botanist, Josef August Schultes (1773-1831). The plant was first described several years earlier, in 1808, by the German botanist Friedrich August Freiherr Marschall von Bieberstein (1768-1826) as belonging to the genus Agrostis holciformis.

In classical Hebrew literature the plant falls under the generic classification of "millet" (Hebrew: דוחן),[2] one of the cereal grasses, and is probably the naqlivas (Hebrew: נקליבס) mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud (Avodah Zarah) as once being used by idolaters.[3]

Habitat and distribution

Piptatherum holciforme grows in waste habitats, along waysides, and adapts well in moist, stony chalkstone soils in Mediterranean scrubland. Its global distribution extends across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

Cultivation

Today, the hairy millet grass has a wide distribution, growing almost exclusively in the wild. To what extent the cereal grass was cultivated in the past by indigenous peoples is now unclear, owing to the multiple varieties of millet and panic. Ohalo, a paleolithic hunter-gatherer archaeological site in Galilee, along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, revealed a storage facility where the grains of hairy millet grass, along with other grains, had been stored.[4][5] In Israel, seedlings of hairy millet grass are sometimes used to reseed marginal land for pasture.[6]

References

  1. ↑ "Piptatherum holciforme (M.Bieb.) Roem. & Schult. — The Plant List". www.theplantlist.org.
  2. ↑ Cf. Mishnah Shevi'it 2:7 ("The rice [crop], the millet [crop], [and] the sorghum [crop] that took root before the New Year, they are tithed [during the Seventh Year] as produce from the previous year, and are permitted during the Seventh Year"); ibid., Hallah 1:4 ("These are liable to Tithes but exempt from Dough-offering: rice, sorghum, millet, sesame, and pulse, etc."); ibid., Baba Metzia 2:7 ("If a man left produce in his fellow's keeping... wheat and rice..., barley and millet, etc."); Babylonian Talmud, Pesahim 35a; ibid., Berakhot 37a
  3. ↑ Based on the identification of naqlivas given by Nathan ben Abraham and Maimonides in Mishnah Avodah Zarah 1:5. See Amar, Z.; Kapah, E. (2011), "The Yemenite Commentary of Rabbi Nathan, President of the Academy, on the Identification of Flora in the Mishnah", in Ayelet Oettinger; Danny Bar-Maoz (eds.), Mittuv Yosef – Yosef Tobi Jubilee Volume, The Jews of Yemen: History and Culture, vol. 2, Haifa: University of Haifa (Center for the Study of Jewish Culture in Spain and in Islamic Countries), p. 19, OCLC 713933314. The same explanation is also found in the Judeo-Arabic lexicon compiled by Rabbi Tanḥum ben Joseph Ha-Yerushalmi (c. 1220–1291), entitled Murshid al-Kāfī (Bodleian Library MS. Huntington 621, frame 152v), where he explains נקלבס as meaning "a very precious type of grass used in worship," but adds that some say that it is "a thing mixed with spices, while others explain its meaning as גוארשן (Arabic: الجاورس = i.e. millet)." Other Talmudic exegetes explain naqlivas as being a type of date.
  4. ↑ Snir, Ainit; Nadel, Dani; Groman-Yaroslavski, Iris; Melamed, Yoel; Sternberg, Marcelo; Bar-Yosef, Ofer; Weiss, Ehud (2015-07-22). "The Origin of Cultivation and Proto-Weeds, Long Before Neolithic Farming". PLOS ONE. 10 (7): e0131422. Bibcode:2015PLoSO..1031422S. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0131422. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 4511808. PMID 26200895.
  5. ↑ Weiss, E.; Kislev, M. E.; Simchoni, O.; Nadel, D.; Tschauner, H. (2008), "Plant-food preparation area on an Upper Paleolithic brush hut floor at Ohalo II, Israel", Journal of Archaeological Science, 35 (8): 2400–2414, doi:10.1016/j.jas.2008.03.012
  6. ↑ Ellern, S.J. (1974). "Seedling Growth and Survival of Oryzopsis holciformis (ricegrass) Sown at Different Densities and Moisture Levels". Journal of Applied Ecology. British Ecological Society. 11 (3): 1027–1034. doi:10.2307/2401762. JSTOR 2401762.

Further reading

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