Flora of North America species comparison

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Setaria leucopila

bristlegrass, plains bristlegrass, streambed bristlegrass, yellow bristlegrass, yellow foxtail
Habit Plants perennial; cespitose.
Culms

20-100 cm.
Sheaths

compressed, glabrous, margins villous distally;

ligules 1-2.5 mm, ciliate;

blades 8-25 cm long, 2-5 mm wide, flat or folded, scabrous on both surfaces.
Panicles

6-15 cm, tightly spikelike, pale green;

rachises scabrous or villous;

bristles usually solitary, 4-15 mm, ascending.
Spikelets

2.2-2.8(3) mm, elliptical.
Lower glumes

about 1/2 as long as the spikelets, 3-veined;

upper glumes from 3/4 as long as to equaling the florets, 5-veined;

lower lemmas equaling the upper lemmas, 5-veined;

lower paleas 1/2 - 3/4 as long as the upper paleas, lanceolate;

upper lemmas apiculate, finely and transversely rugose;

upper paleas similar.
2n

= 54, 68, 72.

Setaria leucopila
Distribution
from FNA
AR; AZ; CO; FL; NM; OK; TX
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Setaria leucopila grows in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. It is the most common of the perennial "Plains bristlegrasses."

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 25, p. 548. Treatment author: James M. Rominger.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Setaria > subg. Setaria
Sibling taxa
S. adhaerans, S. arizonica, S. barbata, S. chapmanii, S. corrugata, S. faberi, S. grisebachii, S. italica, S. liebmannii, S. macrosperma, S. macrostachya, S. magna, S. megaphylla, S. palmifolia, S. parviflora, S. pumila, S. rariflora, S. reverchonii, S. scheelei, S. setosa, S. sphacelata, S. texana, S. verticillata, S. verticilliformis, S. villosissima, S. viridis
Name authority (Scribn. & Merr.) K. Schum.
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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