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West Indian bristlegrass, West Indies bristlegrass

Habit Plants perennial.
Culms

50-100 cm;

nodes usually glabrous.

Sheaths

glabrous or finely pubescent, margins ciliate distally;

ligules of 1 mm hairs;

blades 15-20 cm long, 6-12 mm wide, flat or folded, often finely pubescent on both surfaces.

Panicles

15-20 cm, loosely spikelike, interrupted, attenuate;

rachises often villous;

branches ascending, lower branches about 2.5 cm;

bristles usually solitary, less than 10 mm, antrorsely scabrous.

Spikelets

2-2.5 mm, ovate-lanceolate.

Lower

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

upper glumes about 2/3 as long as the spikelets, 5-7-veined;

lower lemmas equaling the upper lemmas;

lower paleas as long as the upper paleas, broad;

upper lemmas finely and distinctly transversely rugose.

2n

= unknown.

Setaria setosa

Distribution
from FNA
AL; FL; NJ; PR; Virgin Islands
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Setaria setosa is native to the West Indies and Mexico. It is probably a recent introduction to Florida, but appears to be established there. The specimen from New Jersey was from a ballast dump; the species is not established in that state.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 25, p. 550.
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. leucopila, S. liebmannii, S. macrosperma, S. macrostachya, S. magna, S. megaphylla, S. palmifolia, S. parviflora, S. pumila, S. rariflora, S. reverchonii, S. scheelei, S. sphacelata, S. texana, S. verticillata, S. verticilliformis, S. villosissima, S. viridis
Name authority (Sw.) P. Beauv.
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