Smilo

Piptatherum miliaceum is a robust tufted perennial grass of the Poaceae family growing 50-150 cm tall, forming dense clumps from a fibrous knotty crown without rhizomes. Culms are erect, slender to moderately stout, smooth, several-noded and persistently leafy throughout. Leaf blades are flat, linear, 15-35 cm long and 3-8 mm wide, scaberulous on both surfaces and somewhat glaucous; leaf sheaths are smooth and rounded, and the ligule is a short, slightly hairy, truncate membrane 0.5-2 mm long. The inflorescence is a slender, narrow, drooping panicle 20-40 cm long with whorls of fine, sharply ascending to slightly nodding branches that bear small spikelets towards their tips. Spikelets are one-flowered, lanceolate, 2.5-3.5 mm long, lustrous, dorsally compressed. Glumes are subequal, broadly lanceolate, 3-veined, somewhat membranous and equalling the floret. The lemma is firm, leathery, dark brown at maturity, smooth and shining, and bears a fine, straight to slightly twisted, deciduous awn 4-6 mm long that drops away cleanly when the seed ripens. The grain is small, oblong and brown. Native to the Mediterranean basin, the Middle East and the Macaronesian islands and naturalised in similar climates worldwide.