Plant · P-693

Teff

Eragrostis tef

Teff is the tiny gluten-free grain behind injera, the sour pancake bread that is the staple of Ethiopia, ground from a seed so small its name comes from a word for "lost." The grain harvest is modest, but the straw crop that comes with it is usually worth more - cattle prefer it to wheat or barley straw, and Ethiopian farmers rate it close to good pasture. It handles both ends of the water range better than most cereals, tolerating drought and waterlogged ground alike, and it germinates and roots fast enough to serve as a quick erosion cover on bare soil. The straw and stalks also get woven into grain-storage baskets and packed into mud walls as a building fibre. The seed head shatters readily once fully dry - especially in wind or wet weather - so cut and thresh at physiological maturity rather than letting it stand; grain left past that point self-sows and drops surplus for foraging birds.