Setaria leucopila
Setaria italica
bristlegrass, plains bristlegrass, streambed bristlegrass, yellow bristlegrass, yellow foxtail
foxtail bristlegrass, foxtail millet, Italian bristle grass, Italian foxtail, millet des oiseaux, millet foxtail, setaire d'italie, setaire italienne
20-100 cm.
10-100 cm.
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.
mostly glabrous, margins sparsely ciliate;
ligules 1-2 mm;
blades to 20 cm long, 1-3 cm wide, flat, scabrous.
6-15 cm, tightly spikelike, pale green;
rachises scabrous or villous;
bristles usually solitary, 4-15 mm, ascending.
8-30 cm, dense, spikelike, occasionally lobed below;
rachises hispid to villous;
bristles 1-3, to 12 mm, tawny or purple.
2.2-2.8(3) mm, elliptical.
about 3 mm, disarticulating between the lower and upper florets.
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.
3-veined;
upper glumes 5-7-veined;
lower paleas absent or 1/2 as long as the lower lemmas;
upper lemmas very finely and transversely rugose to smooth and shiny, exposed at maturity.
= 54, 68, 72.
= 18.
Setaria leucopila
Setaria italica
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.)
Setaria italica was cultivated in China as early as 2700 B.C. and during the Stone Age in Europe. Nowadays it is grown mostly for hay or as a pasture grass, but it has been used as a substitute for rice in northern China. It is sometimes cultivated in North America, but it is better known as a weed in moist ditches, mostly in the northeastern United States. It is closely related to S. viridis, differing in the longer (3 mm) spikelets and smooth, shiny upper florets which readily disarticulate above the lower florets. It exhibits considerable variation in seed and bristle color, bristle length, and panicle shape. Using these characters, Hubbard (1915) recognized several infraspecific taxa; they are not treated here.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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