Spodiopogon formosanus

Spodiopogon formosanus or the Taiwan oil millet (Chinese: 臺灣油芒; pinyin: táiwān yóumáng[1]) (syn.: Eccoilopus formosanus[2]) is a species of perennial grass in the family Poaceae. It is endemic to Taiwan.[3] It is traditionally grown as a cereal crop by the Taiwanese aborigines.[4]

Spodiopogon formosanus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Clade: Commelinids
Order: Poales
Family: Poaceae
Subfamily: Panicoideae
Genus: Spodiopogon
Species:
S. formosanus
Binomial name
Spodiopogon formosanus
Rendle
Synonyms

Eccoilopus formosanus

Its wild progenitor is most likely Spodiopogon cotulifer, which is found in Taiwan and also in mainland China.[5]

For most of the 20th century, the Taiwan oil millet had been misidentified as Echinochloa esculenta (the Japanese barnyard millet or hie 稗) until it was "rediscovered" by Dorian Fuller in the 2000s with the proper identification of specimens as Spodiopogon formosanus.[6]

Cultivation

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).[7][8]

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.[6]

Common names

Common names for Spodiopogon formosanus in Formosan languages:[9][6]

  • Amis (?): samuk
  • Bunun: diirh; diil
  • Tsou: ihalumay, hrome; herome
  • Rukai: lhaomai; larumai, irome
  • Paiwan: rumay; jumai, lumai, lyumai

Common names from Yuasa (2001):[10]

Most of the lexical forms reconstruct to *Numay.

It is also occasionally referred to as the Formosan beard grass[11] or Taiwan hill millet.[12]

References
  1. Chen Hsien-yi and Dennis Xie (Apr 14, 2020). "Taiwan oil millet touted as a potential superfood". Taiwan News.
  2. Laurent Sagart, Tze-Fu Hsu, Yuan-Ching Tsai, Yue-Ie Hsing. Austronesian and Chinese words for the millets. Language Dynamics and Change, 2017, 7 (2), pp.187-209. doi:10.1163/22105832-00702002. hal-03146013
  3. TAKEI, Emiko. 2008. Historical review of Spodiopogon formosanus Rendle, a minor grain crop in Taiwan. Bulletin of the Cultural and Natural Sciences in Osaka Gakuin University 57: 43-66 (in Japanese, with English abstract).
  4. Blench, Roger. 2014. The Austronesians: an agricultural revolution that failed. Second International Conference on Taiwan Indigenous Peoples, 15-17 September 2014, Shung Ye Museum, Taipei, Taiwan.
  5. Fuller, Dorian Q. (15 May 2009). The Forgotten Oil Millet of Taiwan. In: The Archaeobotanist.
  6. Takei, Emiko (October 2013). Millet Culture and Indigenous Cuisine in Taiwan. The 2013 International Conference on Chinese Food Culture, Kunming, Yunnan, China.
  7. Blench, Roger. 2010. Almost everything you believed about Austronesian isn't true. 13th International Conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists, 27th September - 1st October 2010, Berlin.
  8. Blench, Roger. 2014. The Austronesians: an agricultural revolution that failed. 2014 International Conference on Formosan Indigenous Peoples: Contemporary Perspectives. 15-17 September 2014. Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
  9. Blench, Roger. 2010. Vernacular names for millets and other minor cereals in East and Southeast Asia and their correlation with centres of domestication and spread. Paper prepared for the RIHN Symposium ‘Small millets in Africa and Asia’ Tokyo September 19-20th, 2010, and now submitted for a special issue of the journal Archaeological & Anthropological Sciences.
  10. 湯浅浩史. Yuasa, Hiroshi. 2001. 瀬川孝吉 台湾先住民写真誌—ツオウ篇. Segawa’s Illustrated Ethnography of Indigenous Formosan People – The Tsou. 東京:東京農業大学出版会.
  11. Hung, Katy Huiwen (December 21, 2020). Indigenous note - The Forgotten Oil Millet of Taiwan.
  12. Fuller, Dorian Q. (2014). "Millets: Origins and Development". Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. New York, NY: Springer New York. pp. 4945–4948. doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_2181. ISBN 978-1-4419-0426-3. S2CID 129203615.
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