Kangni / Indian Millet
Setaria italica
Also known as Fox-Tail Millet
- Habit
- Herb
- Found in India
- Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh & more
- Flowering
- September-February
How to identify Kangni
Identify Kangni by combining habit, leaf characters, flower or fruit details, location, and its family pattern. Do not rely on one feature alone.
- Look for a herb habit.
- Check the distinctive field mark: Cultivated grain crop (foxtail millet).
- Confirm fruit surface: Smooth, not spiny.
- In season, compare flowering and fruiting time: September-February.
- In India, compare location records such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and nearby regions.
- Confirm it sits within the Poaceae family pattern, then compare close relatives before deciding it is Kangni.
Plant Details
- Scientific name
- Setaria italica
- Genus
- Setaria
- Family
- Poaceae
- Habit
- Herb
- Distribution
- Widely cultivated
- Found in India
- Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Odisha, Rajasthan, Kerala, Manipur, Tripura, Uttarakhand
- Flowering & fruiting
- September-February
- Conservation status
- Not Evaluated (NE)
Leaf characters
- Arrangement
- Alternate
Typical of the Poaceae family — a field-mark hint, not measured for this exact species.
Flower & fruit characters
- Fruit surface
- Smooth, not spinyrecorded
Typical of the family
- Flower symmetry
- Actinomorphic (radially symmetrical)
- Inflorescence
- Spike
- Fruit
- Grain
Characters marked “recorded” are for Kangni itself; the rest are typical of the Poaceae family — flowering plants only.
Local Names
- Hindi
- कांगणी Kangni,कँगनी kangani,कंगनी kangani
- Nepali
- Kaguno, कागुनी
- Bengali
- কাওন দানা Kaon dana, কাউন, কাওন
- Tamil
- தினை Thinai, கங்கு, Kavalai, தினை
- Telugu
- కొఱ్ఱలు, కొర్రలు, సెటేరియా ఇటాలికా
- Kannada
- ನವಣೆ Navne, ನವಣೆ
- Malayalam
- തിന Thina, തിന, Foxtail millet
- Marathi
- राळं Ral, राळे, राळा तांदूळ
- Sanskrit
- प्रियङ्गुः
- Punjabi
- ਫੌਕਸਟੇਲ ਬਾਜਰੇ
About Kangni
Indian Millet (Setaria italica) belongs to the Poaceae family, where it grows as a herb. In India it has been recorded in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and 15 other states. Flowering and fruiting run from September to February.
Poaceae
Grass family
Kangni belongs to the Poaceae family.
The illustration represents the family — not necessarily this exact species.
Explore the Poaceae familySnap it. Know it.
Point your camera at Kangni or any plant and SASYA identifies it instantly — on-device, offline, and private.
Common plant problems
If you are starting from symptoms instead of a diagnosis, use the plant disease symptom checker to narrow the cause before treating.
All plant problem & care guides