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Finger Pearl millet has names in many Kenyan dialects:<ref name="Maundu"/> '''[[Bantu Languages]]''' Coastal:* [[Mijikenda]] ([[Kambe]]): muwele Central:* [[Embu]]: mwere* [[Kamba]]: mwee* [[Kikuyu]]: mwere* [[Mbeere]]: mwere* [[Meru]]: mwere* [[Tharaka]]: mwere '''[[Nilotic Languages]]''' Plains:* [[Turkana]]: erau '''Other Languages'''* [[Swahili]]: uwele, mawele, mwele, miwele
SW: →Cultivation in Kenya: add info
'''Pearl Millet''' (Pennisetum glaucum) is a plant in the grass family (Gramineae) that is cultivated for its seed (grain). Other names for it are bulrush millet or spiked millet. It was likely domesticated in Africa's [[Sahel]] region, just south of the Sahara desert.<ref>Jared Diamond, ''Guns, Germs, and Steel'', p. 388.</ref>
== Description ==
Pearl millet is a tall grass that usually grows to 1.5 to 2.5 meters (although some varieties grow up to 5m). The leaves of the plant are long, narrow, and slightly hairy. The flowers form cylindrical heads up to 20cm long (and up to 50cm in some varieties) that begin greenish white, then turn dirty yellow-brown, and last turn grey as the grain matures. The flowers produce large amounts of pollen. The grains are 1.5 to 2.5mm, greenish grey, oval in shape, and may be easy to spot or - in some varieties - hidden by long bristles.<ref name="Maundu">[Patrick M. Maundu, Grace W. Ngugi, and Christine H.S. Kabuye, ''Traditional Food Plants of Kenya'', [[Kenya Resource Centre for Indigenous Knowledge]], [[National Museums of Kenya]], Nairobi, Kenya, 1999, p. 125.</ref>
== Origins Ecology ==Pearl Millet is a very drought tolerant crop that grows in low semi-arid regions below 1,500m above sea level. It does well on sandy soils but can also be grown in heavy clay soils and Geographic Distribution =will even produce a crop on poor soils. Pearl millet requires 400mm to 800mm annual rainfall.<ref name="Maundu"/>
== Cultivation in Kenya ==
Within Kenya, pearl millet is grown in the drier parts of the country, particularly in the [[Tharaka]] region of Tharaka-Nithi District and in [[Mbeere]] and [[Mwingi]]. It's also occasionally seen in parts of Coast Province, Makueni, Machakos, Embu, Mbeere, and Kirinyaga Districts.<ref name="Maundu"/>
Among the [[Giriama]], [[Duruma]], [[Digo]], [[Kamba]], [[Embu]], and [[Tharaka]] ethnic groups, the grain is ground into flour and used in porridge (''uji'' or ''ugali''). "Among the Kamba the flour may be mixed with fermented milk and eaten on its own (''kinaa'') or fermented in a gourd to form a porridge (''isandi'')."<ref name="Maundu"/> Medicinally, the grain flour mixed with water is used to treat diarrhea. The stalks of the plant are also used as mulch but they are not good as animal feed.
Pearl millet can be sown by broadcasting seeds or planted in lines covered in a little soil. "Traditionally several grains are dropped at intervals of about 30 cm. Crop lines can be at intervals of 0.5-0.7m."<ref name="Maundu"/> Pearl millet is sometimes intercropped with maize, either by varying lines of each crop or by planting a few maize plants among the millet.
=== Names in Various Languages ===
==Resources and articles==
