Setaria parviflora |
Setaria italica |
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knot-root bristlegrass, knotroot foxtail, marsh bristle grass, yellow bristlegrass |
foxtail bristlegrass, foxtail millet, Italian bristle grass, Italian foxtail, millet des oiseaux, millet foxtail, setaire d'italie, setaire italienne |
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Habit | Plants perennial; rhizomatous, rhizomes short, knotty. | Plants annual. |
Culms | 30-120 cm; nodes glabrous. |
10-100 cm. |
Sheaths | glabrous; ligules shorter than 1 mm, of hairs; blades to 25 cm long, 2-8 mm wide, flat, scabrous above. |
mostly glabrous, margins sparsely ciliate; ligules 1-2 mm; blades to 20 cm long, 1-3 cm wide, flat, scabrous. |
Panicles | 3-8 (10) cm, of uniform width throughout their length, densely spikelike; rachises scabro-hispid; bristles 4-12, 2-12 mm, antrorsely barbed, yellow to purple. |
8-30 cm, dense, spikelike, occasionally lobed below; rachises hispid to villous; bristles 1-3, to 12 mm, tawny or purple. |
Spikelets | 2-2.8 mm, elliptical and turgid. |
about 3 mm, disarticulating between the lower and upper florets. |
Lower | glumes about 1/3 as long as the spikelets, 3-veined; upper glumes 1/2 - 2/3 as long as the spikelets, 5-veined; lower florets often staminate; lower lemmas occasionally indurate and faintly transversely rugose; lower paleas equaling the lower lemmas; upper lemmas distinctly transversely rugose, often purple-tipped. |
glumes 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. |
2n | = 36, 72. |
= 18. |
Setaria parviflora |
Setaria italica |
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Distribution |
AL; AR; AZ; CA; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; MO; MS; NC; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; TN; TX; UT; VA; WA; WV; HI; PR; Virgin Islands
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AL; AR; AZ; CA; CO; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; AB; BC; MB; NB; NS; ON; QC; Virgin Islands
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Discussion | Setaria parviflora is a common, native species of moist ground. It is most frequent along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, but it also grows from the Central Valley of California east through the central United States and southward through Mexico to Central America, as well as in the West Indies. The plant from Oregon was found on a ballast dump; the species is not established in that state. Setaria parviflora is the most morphologically diverse and widely distributed of the indigenous perennial species of Setaria. (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.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 556. | FNA vol. 25, p. 556. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Setaria > subg. Setaria | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Setaria > subg. Setaria |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | S. imberbis, S. gracilis, S. geniculata | S. italica subsp. stramineofructa, S. italica subvariety metzgeri |
Name authority | (Poir.) Kerguelen | (L.) P. Beauv. |
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