The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Spodiopogon formosanus, the Taiwan oil millet, is a perennial grass endemic to Taiwan, traditionally grown as a cereal crop by Taiwanese indigenous peoples. It is sown in winter to early spring and harvested in late autumn.
Spodiopogon formosanus or the Taiwan oil millet (Chinese: 臺灣油芒; pinyin: táiwān yóumáng) (syn.: Eccoilopus formosanus) is a species of perennial grass in the family Poaceae. It is endemic to Taiwan. It is traditionally grown as a cereal crop by Taiwanese indigenous peoples.
Its wild progenitor is most likely Spodiopogon cotulifer, which is found in Taiwan and also in mainland China.
In the Rukai village of Vedray (霧台 Wutai), the Paiwan village of Masilid, and the Bunun village of Tahun, the Taiwan oil millet is grown alongside other cereal crops such as rice, foxtail millet, sorghum, and Job's tears (and also finger millet and proso millet in Tahun).
The Bunun, Rukai, and Paiwan peoples often sow foxtail millet and Taiwan oil millet simultaneously from winter to early spring. Although foxtail millet is typically harvested during mid-summer, Taiwan oil millet is harvested in late autumn.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Spodiopogon formosanus by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
