Eleusine coracana

Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.

Order	Poales
Family	Gramineae
Genus	Eleusine

2n = 36

Origin : Ethiopia

wild and cultivated

English	{{{english}}}
French	{{{french}}}

Popular names

• English: finger millet, African millet, koracan
• French: petit mil, coracan
• German: Fingerhirse
• Dutch, Afrikaans: vogel gierst
• Portuguese: luco, capim colonial, nachenim
• Swahili:
  • wimbi, ulezi (Lost crops of Africa)
  • mwimbi, ulezi (PROTA)
• Amharic: dagussa, tokuso (Lost crops of Africa)

• Nepalese: koddo (Lost crops of Africa)
• Hindi: mandua, mandal (Wealth of India)
• Bengali: marua (Wealth of India)
• Marathi: nagli, nachoni (Wealth of India)
• Gujerati: bavto, nagli (Wealth of India)
• Telugu:
  • ragulu (Wealth of India)
  • rāgi (DEDR)
• Tamil:
  • ragi, kelvaregu (Wealth of India)
  • irāki, iṟuṅku (DEDR)
  • கேழ்வரகு - "keezhvaragu", /ke:ɻvaragə/, /ke:lvaragə/ in towns.
• Kannada:
  • ragi (Wealth of India)
  • rāgi (DEDR)
• Malayalam:
  • muttari (Wealth of India)
  • rāgi, ṟayi (DEDR)

• Koḍagu: eri (DEDR)
• Iruḷa: ra•yi (DEDR)
• Toda: erxy (DEDR)
• Tulu: rāgi (DEDR)

Biology

• 
  spikes
• 
  grains of a red cultivar

Classification

Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn. (1788)

Basionym:

• Cynosurus coracan L. (1759)

Synonyms:

• Cynosurus coracanus L. (1762)
• Eleusine cerealis Salisb. (1796)

Linnaeus used coracan in 1759 and corrected the epithet to coracanus in 1762. It is still uncertain whether the original spelling has to be maintained or corrected.

History

see Candolle's and Sturtevant's articles.

Uses

• cereal : grain used entire or ground for porridge.
• beverage: grain malted and made into a beer.
• forage : the plant gives a good hay.
• straw : used for thatching and plaiting.

Links

• GRIN
• IPNI
• Lost crops of Africa
• Mansfeld (Eleusine coracan)
• Plants for a future
• Prota4U