Oloptum miliaceum

Oloptum miliaceum (formerly Piptatherum miliaceum or Oryzopsis miliacea), commonly called smilo grass or millet mountaingrass, is a robust tufted perennial grass in the family Poaceae native to the Mediterranean basin, from southern Europe and North Africa east through southwest Asia to the Himalayas. Plants form coarse leafy clumps 60-150 cm tall with stout erect culms branching at the upper nodes. Leaf blades are flat, broad (4-10 mm wide) and up to 30 cm long, gradually tapering to a fine point, with rough margins and a glabrous to slightly hairy upper surface; the ligule is a short membranous flap about 1-2 mm long. The inflorescence is a large open spreading panicle 15-40 cm long, with slender whorled branches finely divided into many filiform secondary branches, each bearing a small lanceolate awnless or short-mucronate spikelet 2.5-3.5 mm long. Each spikelet contains a single floret. Flowering occurs from late spring through summer. The species inhabits dry rocky slopes, garrigues, roadside banks, walls, fallow fields, and disturbed open ground on a wide range of soils, often becoming weedy in irrigated agriculture in Mediterranean climates.