While on the topic of barnyard millets and their wild relatives this month, mention should be made of Echinochloa turneriana, a species native to the Australian outback that is given the name, "Channel millet." This species has attracted the attention of a research group including geneticists and archaeologists - the latter since Channel millet may have once been a food of the Mithaka people of central Australia./1 However, some earlier research (in the 1980s) on E. turneriana, which compared it with E. esculenta (formerly E. utilis) and E. frumentacea, concluded: "No compelling physiological reason was found for the domestication of Channel millet vis-à-vis other millets."/2 The name "Channel millet" comes from Channel Country, which is an eastern area of central Australia./3 The Mithaka or Mitaka are an aboriginal people of that continent, whose language is extinct./4 In any event, this is something to watch from afar. Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance Notes: 1. "A wild Australian grain to diversify diets," UQ [University of Queensland] News, 26 October 2023 https://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2023/10/wild-australian-grain-diversify-d... 2. L.T. Evans and M.G. Bush,"Growth and development of channel millet (Echinochloa turneriana) in relation to its potential as a crop plant and compared with other Echinochloa millets, rice and wheat," Field Crops Research, Vol. 12, 1985, Pages 295-317, https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-4290(85)90076-0. 3. "Channel Country," Wikipedia (accessed 21 July 2024) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_Country 4. "Mitaka people," Wikipedia (accessed 21 July 2024) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitaka_people