Sorghum is one of the five top cereal crops in the world, along with wheat, oats, corn, and barley. It originates in Africa, having been cultivated in Egypt in antiquity, and the largest producer of sorghum in the modern era is still Africa, although the crop has spread to southern Asia and the Americas as well. In traditional form, sorghum is a towering plant over six feet (two meters) tall, although many varieties designed for cultivation are dwarf breeds, specially designed for easy harvest. In Africa, however, traditional tall sorghum is still grown, and the stalks are put to a variety of uses.

Sorghum is a vigorous grass that varies between 0.5 – 5.0 m in height. It is usually an annual. It produces one or many tillers, which emerge initially from the base and later from stem nodes. The root system consists of fibrous adventitious roots that emerge from the lowest nodes of the stem, below and immediately above ground level.

Roots are normally concentrated in the top 0.9 m of soil but may extend to twice that depth and can extend to 1.5 m in lateral spread. The stem is solid, usually erect. Its center can be dry or juicy, insipid or sweet to taste. The center of the stem can become pithy with spaces. Leaves vary in number from 7 – 24, depending on the cultivar. They are borne alternately in two ranks.

Leaf sheaths vary in length between 15 – 35 cm and encircle the stem with their margins overlapping. The leaf sheath often has a waxy bloom. Leaves are from 30 – 135 cm long and 1.5 – 13 cm wide, with a flat or wavy margins. Midribs are white or yellow in dry pithy cultivars or green in juicy cultivars.

 The flower is a panicle, usually erect, but sometimes recurved to form a goose neck. The panicle has a central rachis, with short or long primary, secondary and sometimes tertiary branches, which bear groups of spikelets. The length and closeness of the panicle branches determine panicle shape, which varies from densely packed conical or oval to spreading and lax.

Grain is usually partially covered by glumes. The seed is rounded and bluntly pointed, from 4 – 8 mm in diameter and varying in size, shape and color with cultivar.

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