You're welcome, Gary, and thank you for the additional information and clarifications. As you've shown, it's important to read any research article critically. I tried to find any good comparison of proso and foxtail root systems, but turned up no useful contrasts. Both, as you note have shallow root systems, and proso is better able to cope in drier conditions. (Among millets, pearl millet - a much bigger plant - has the deepest root system, deeper even than sorghum.) Proso and foxtail share somewhat similar histories, originating in ancient times in what is now China, and spreading across Eurasia and beyond. There are differences, as these are separate species, of course, and I think it would be interesting to see a deep dive into both the physical differences, and their histories. In regions where they both were and are present, how did or do farmers (and their communities) chose among or manage the two? Two present day comparisons in the US, which also include several other millets: * "Growing Millets for Grain, Forage or Cover Crop Use" is Rob Myers' 2018 survey, and remains an excellent overview. Dr. Myers, who is at University of Missouri, helped NAMA get started with the 2023 Millets Webinar series. * "Types of Millet Grown in the High Plains" is a regionally focused summery of proso, foxtail, pearl, and finger millets by the High Plains Millet Association https://extension.missouri.edu/publications/g4164 Don DO, EL, MI, US NAMA On Thu, Mar 5, 2026 at 4:50 PM Gary Wietgrefe via Collab < collab@lists.millets2023.space> wrote:
Fascinating paper. Thank you Don.
Dates and movement of millets is interesting, but in the era of decreased water for agriculture, I found the historic record "Impact of Climate Change" summary very interesting and beneficial for today's need for millets. That general area is where I did proso millet research (Mongolia and Turkey).
1.) I disagree that foxtail millet has deep root system as stated "...while its drought resilience relied on deep root systems and efficient stomatal regulation."
2.) I confirm that both foxtail and proso millets are very drought tolerant and respond to light irrigation at critical growth stages.
In this copied summary proso millet (200 mm = 7.9 inches/year) takes slightly less minimum moisture to mature into grain than foxtail millets (>250 mm = 9.4 inches/year).
"Foxtail millet (Setaria italica) and broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum), as archetypal drought-tolerant crops, exhibited distinct thermal and hydrological adaptations. Foxtail millet required an accumulated temperature of 1800–2800 °C·d and was adapted to semi-arid environments with annual precipitation of 250–600 mm. Its seedlings tolerated brief frosts down to −2 °C, while its drought resilience relied on deep root systems and efficient stomatal regulation. Broomcorn millet demonstrated greater cold tolerance (withstanding −5 °C frosts), required lower accumulated temperatures (1500–2500 °C·d), and thrived in more arid conditions (≥200 mm annual precipitation). Both crops grew in saline soils typical of arid zones, traits that rendered them pivotal in early trans-climatic agricultural dispersal."
After the Soviet Union collapsed, I sent U.S. proso millet varieties to Mongolia where they were planted in an extremely dry area receiving only 90 mm/year average precipitation. Millet variety trials were watered pre-plant and four times at critical growth stages at 400 m3/ha and 600 m3/ha. See (PDF) Ancient Proso Millet and the Twentieth Century Survival of Mongolia < https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358270886_Ancient_Proso_Millet_and_...
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*RESEARCH NEEDED*: In order to reduce U.S. water wasted on irrigating rice and corn, proso and foxtail millet irrigation trials need to be conducted by variety to optimize millets yield and minimize water use....Gary Wietgrefe
On Wed, Mar 4, 2026 at 5:00 PM <collab-request@lists.millets2023.space> wrote:
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Today's Topics:
1. Proso & foxtail millets cross Altai Mountains in Bronze Age (Don Osborn)
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Message: 1 Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2026 11:29:15 -0500 From: Don Osborn <don@milletsalliance.org> Subject: [Collab] Proso & foxtail millets cross Altai Mountains in Bronze Age To: "NAMA's Collab list" <collab@lists.millets2023.space> Message-ID: < CA+RHibUw0YioiAkUy6sgF9D1cjqT-3xELiGwMHzaVud8bHFvfw@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
A recent article sheds light on the Altai Mountains as a key region in the process of spread of proso millet (Panicum miliaceum) and foxtail millet (Setaria italica) from China west and across Eurasia. This would begin at an earlier period of the Bronze Age than that discussed in an article I shared here in a few weeks ago./1 The Altai Mountains are in the area of the borders of present day China, Russia, Mongolia, and Khazakhstan. /2
Tan, B., Tang, L., Lu, C. *et al.* "Millet in the Bronze Age Altai Mountains: discovery, progress and research prospects." *npj Heritage Science* *13*, 299 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s40494-025-01871-z /3
Abstract: "The Altai Mountains were a main channel and a key connection for the spread of millet, but little is known about the spatiotemporal process and route of its spread. In this paper, the multiple evidences of millet transmission in the Altai Mountains in the Bronze Age are reviewed; the spatiotemporal process and possible pathways of millet’s dissemination is discussed; Future research priorities and possible directions of breakthroughs are proposed."
Comments: This is another important piece in the picture of the spread of proso and foxtail millets. It is a topic that various researchers have /4
The period examined seems broad, extending through different eras within the Bronze Age,/5 and into the early Iron Age. There's a lot of interesting information and analysis here. For me, it would have helped to have a summary of findings by period.
One problem, which I consider to be significant, is that one has to dig halfway into the article to verify that the authors are indeed writing about two millets - proso and foxtail. That could have been made clear at the beginning.
Although at one point the authors note the "distinct thermal and hydrological adaptations" of these two millets, there was no discussion of whether the data woould enable exploration of sub-narratives for each of them in the story of millets' presence in Altai. There was discussion of how "Starch grains from cultivated millets exhibited near-identical morphological overlap with wild progenitors and relatives, notably Setaria viridis (green foxtail) and Panicum bisulcatum (panic grass)," but I saw no mention of whether one might still be able to distinguish Setarias from Panicums.
Definitely worth reading if you are like me interested in the (pre)history of dissemination of millets.
Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US - +1 202-621-3911) North American Millets Alliance
Notes: 1. "Proso millet improved life in late Bronze Age Europe," Collab, 31 Jan 2026
https://lists.millets2023.space/archives/list/collab@lists.millets2023.space...
2, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altai_Mountains 3. The full list of authors: Bo Tan, Lei Tang, Chao Lu, Lai Jiang, Jinmeng Tang, Liyuan Zheng, Yong Zhang, Wensheng Zhang & Chengbang An 4. Regarding proso in particular, see for example: "Early history of proso millet in Europe (2022 book)," Collab, 30 Jul 2024
https://lists.millets2023.space/archives/list/collab@lists.millets2023.space...
& < https://lists.millets2023.space/archives/list/collab@lists.millets2023.space...
the article by Harriet Hunt, et al mentioned in "Lessons from antiquity (& the 1990s) for the marketing of proso millet today?" Collab, 26 Jan 2024
https://lists.millets2023.space/archives/list/collab@lists.millets2023.space...
5. For an overview of that period, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze_Age
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-- Author, Gary W. Wietgrefe, https://www.RelatingtoAncients.com/ Enjoy Wietgrefe's (pronounced "wit' grif") dozen books, patents, and international research on millets, agronomy, cultural changes, travel adventure, poetry, and history.
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