Visualizing millets as a group, with one re-usable schematic
The “Millets Triangle” - a North American Millets Alliance (NAMA) product - is an attempt to bring millets, broadly defined, into a single schematic that takes into account three key distinguishing factors:
their relative levels of production;
their botanical relationships; and
their geographic origins.
It was first designed in 2022 by NAMA’s Don Osborn, as a way of facilitating understanding of and teaching about this diverse group of mostly small-grained crops. The current version is 3.1, dated 3 May 2025.
A full presentation of the Millets Triangle as a PDF of a PPT presentation is available for viewing or downloading. A brief description follows.
The Millets Triangle is divided into cells. The English common name of each millet appears in its own cell, and the cells are organized to the extent possible by the three distinguishing factors mentioned above. Three of the examples in the image below illustrate these organizing principles. The fourth one (top right) gives the genus and species name for each millet included.
Millets Triangle: Relative production (t.l.); species names (t.r.); continental origins (b.l.); botanical relationships (b.r.)
The shading or color-coding of cells allows one to illustrate which millets among the larger group share certain characteristics, like being grown in a particular country or region. The examples below show shading of cells for millets grown as crops in North America, and then color coding to show which are not only grown for on-farm use and other non-food uses, but also for their grain for food. (NB- the cell for pearl millet should be revised with a note to indicate that there are now a very few farms growing this grain for food.)
Millets grown as crops in North America (shading & color coding)
The Millets Triangle is free to use and modify, if you give credit and make your work sharable in the same manner. The blank version below can be copied or downloaded.
Blank Millets Triangle
There are more examples of use of the Millets Triangle in the full presentation linked above.
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