Piptatherum holciforme

{{Speciesbox

|image = Piptatherum holciforme.jpg

|image_caption = Hairy millet grass seeds (Piptatherum holciforme)

|genus = Piptatherum

|species = holciforme

|synonyms = * Agrostis holciformis {{au|M.Bieb.}}

Milium coerulescens var. holciforme {{au|(M. Bieb.) Regel}}
Milium holciforme {{au|(M.Bieb.) Spreng.}}
Oryzopsis coerulescens var. grandis {{au|Pamp.}}
Oryzopsis grandis {{au|(Pamp.) Maire & Weiller}}
Oryzopsis holciformis {{au|(M.Bieb.) Hack.}}
Oryzopsis holciformis var. glabra {{au|(Freitag) D.Heller}}
Oryzopsis kopetdaghensis {{au|Roshev.}}
Piptatherum holciforme var. glabrum {{au|Freitag}}
Piptatherum karataviense {{au|Roshev.}}
Urachne holciformis {{au|(M.Bieb.) K.Koch}}
Urachne sinaica {{au|Steud.}}

|synonyms_ref = {{cite web |last=Hassler |first=Michael |title=World Plants. Synonymic Checklist and Distribution of the World Flora |work=Version 25.01; last update January 2nd, 2025 |publisher=www.worldplants.de. |date=1994 |url=https://www.worldplants.de/world-plants-complete-list/complete-plant-list/?name=Piptatherum-holciforme#plantUid-107987 |accessdate=January 6, 2025}}

}}

Piptatherum holciforme is an Old World species of cereal grass known by the common names rice grass, hairy ricegrass, and hairy millet grass. The seed of the plant is a type of grain millet.

Description

Piptatherum holciforme is perennial and stands erect about {{Convert|50-80|cm}}. Dissected leaves branch 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 reach a length of 1–1.5 cm, without the awn (spikelets), making them the largest and longest of all species of Piptatherum that grow in Israel.{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}}

Taxonomy

The plant was first described in 1808 by the German botanist Friedrich August Freiherr Marschall von Bieberstein as belonging to the taxon Agrostis holciformis. The plant's modern taxonomic name was described in 1817 by the Swiss botanist and entomologist Johann Jacob Roemer and his colleague, the Austrian botanist Josef August Schultes.

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.

Uses

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.{{Cite journal|last1=Snir|first1=Ainit|last2=Nadel|first2=Dani|last3=Groman-Yaroslavski|first3=Iris|last4=Melamed|first4=Yoel|last5=Sternberg|first5=Marcelo|last6=Bar-Yosef|first6=Ofer|last7=Weiss|first7=Ehud|date=2015-07-22|title=The Origin of Cultivation and Proto-Weeds, Long Before Neolithic Farming|journal=PLOS ONE|volume=10|issue=7|pages=e0131422|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0131422|issn=1932-6203|pmc=4511808|pmid=26200895|bibcode=2015PLoSO..1031422S|doi-access=free}}{{citation|doi=10.1016/j.jas.2008.03.012|title=Plant-food preparation area on an Upper Paleolithic brush hut floor at Ohalo II, Israel|journal=Journal of Archaeological Science|volume=35|issue=8|pages=2400–2414|year=2008|last1=Weiss|first1=E.|last2=Kislev|first2=M. E.|last3=Simchoni|first3=O.|last4=Nadel|first4=D.|last5=Tschauner|first5=H.|bibcode=2008JArSc..35.2400W }} In Israel, seedlings of hairy millet grass are sometimes used to reseed marginal land for pasture.{{cite journal |last=Ellern |first=S.J. |title=Seedling Growth and Survival of Oryzopsis holciformis (ricegrass) Sown at Different Densities and Moisture Levels |journal=Journal of Applied Ecology |publisher=British Ecological Society |volume=11 |issue=3 |year=1974 |pages=1027–1034 |doi=10.2307/2401762 |jstor=2401762 |bibcode=1974JApEc..11.1027E |language=en }}

The millet can be ground into meal and prepared as a porridge.

In culture

In classical Hebrew literature, the plant falls under the generic classification of "millet" ({{langx|he|דוחן}}),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 one of the cereal grasses, and is probably the naqlivas ({{langx|he|נקליבס|links=no}}) mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud (Avodah Zarah) as once being used by idolaters.Based on the identification of naqlivas given by Nathan ben Abraham and Maimonides in Mishnah Avodah Zarah 1:5. See {{Citation |author-last1=Amar |author-first1=Z. |title=Mittuv Yosef – Yosef Tobi Jubilee Volume, The Jews of Yemen: History and Culture |volume=2 |page=19 |year=2011 |editor1=Ayelet Oettinger |contribution=The Yemenite Commentary of Rabbi Nathan, President of the Academy, on the Identification of Flora in the Mishnah |place=Haifa |publisher=University of Haifa (Center for the Study of Jewish Culture in Spain and in Islamic Countries) |oclc=713933314 |author-last2=Kapah |author-first2=E. |author-link1=Zohar Amar |editor2=Danny Bar-Maoz}}. 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 [https://iiif.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/iiif/viewer/06abea16-07ae-4bd6-80cc-be7773bb33ae#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=313&r=0&xywh=-1505%2C1105%2C7572%2C3825 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.

References

External links

[https://www.wildflowers.co.il/english/plant.asp?ID=1205 Wild Flowers of Israel. Piptatherum holciforme]
JSTOR [https://plants.jstor.org/search?genus=Piptatherum&species=holciforme Global Plants: Piptatherum holciforme]
[https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/17618/bot_Romaschenko_etal_2011_Phylogenetics_Piptatherum_Piptatheropsis_Patis_Taxon_1703_1716.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Phylogenetics of Piptatherum s.l. (Poaceae: Stipeae): Evidence for a new genus, Piptatheropsis, and resurrection of Patis (TAXON, 2011]
[https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:416090-1 Royal Botanic Gardens: Kew Science], Online Plants of the World (Piptatherum holciforme (M.Bieb.) Roem. & Schult.)
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