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Panicum miliaceum
Ancestor: Proso millet is an allotetraploid, a convergence of two diploid species' full genomes. This makes it a type of hybrid. The ancestor that is known is Panicum capillare (Witchgrass). The other ancestor is an unknown, likely extinct species.
"Ripe" proso millet. Under human cultivation this grain would be ready to harvest.
Temporal Range:
Temporal Range:
Evolved: Unknown. The genomes of it's composite species diverged over 5 million years ago, but no estimation or calculation on when they converged. Proso millet has been domesticated by humans for at least 10 thousand years.
Extinct: Not yet.
Habitat and Geography:
Habitat and Geography:
Location: West Catland spreading on it's way up to sub-equatorial latitudes and across to Central Catland.
Viable Habitat: Hot climate open habitats such as hot grasslands, shrublands, desert and rocky mountain habitats.
Needs:
Needs:
Sun: Prefers full sun and is thermophilic.
Growth medium: Prefers lighter soil, that being with high particulate size such as sandy soil. High particulate size allows for larger air spaces between, and more air circulation for the roots. However grows less well in very coarse sand. It is not tolerant of soils that become waterlogged or soaked with poor drainage, nor is it tolerant of soil compaction from animals or regular year-round rainfall.
Water: Can survive in arid environments that only get seasonal rainfall and can survive droughts that last part of the year. It requires seasonal rain for it's germination and growth. Doesn't tolerate water collecting or pooling in the soil, so cannot have too much rain and needs soil that allows easy drainage.
Range of millet spreading out from the original point of seeding a few hundred years after the event.
Size: Can grow up to 1 metre tall, but may only reach as high as 30 centimetres under stress.
Life Cycle: Self-pollinating flowerer, pollen can sometimes be dispersed plant-to-plant by wind. Annual grass that can complete it's life cycle in 100 days. In some places proso millet can grow from one generation to the next year-round but in places that have seasons when the grasses die back, fallen dormant seeds take over during the next period favourable to growth.
Other: Proso millet like many Poales use C4 photosynthesis, which ensures an essential enzyme for carbon fixation (RuBisCO) does not react too much of the intended precursor with the available oxygen (because it is able to) and instead most of the reactions with this precursor are with CO2, as is most needed. This pathway does this by ensuring a concentration gradient of CO2 moving to RuBisCO and keeping it's concentration high surrounding it. If it reacts the available oxygen the plant will carry out photorespiration (a.k.a. C2 photosynthesis). This is an inefficient form of photosynthesis that isn't sustainable and results in more waste to be excreted, which consumes more energy.
High temperatures increase the chance of reactions with oxygen and thus the production of the wasteful byproduct. As well as that, closing stoma to conserve water in the hottest part of the day means oxygen concentrations build up inside the leaf, increasing the chance of reactions of RuBisCO with oxygen. The C4 method aims to keep CO2 crowding out the oxygen and keeping the number of reactions with CO2 much higher than oxygen. This means that proso millet can photosynthesise much more efficiently than non-C4 plants into the hotter drier period of the day when their stoma are closed.
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