Yellow Bristle Grass

Description

Setaria pumila is a species of grass known by many common names, including yellow foxtail, yellow bristle-grass, pigeon grass, and cattail grass. It is native to Europe, but it is known throughout the world as a common weed. It grows in lawns, sidewalks, roadsides, cultivated fields, and many other places. This annual grass grows 20 centimetres (8 inches) to well over 1 metre (1 yard) in height, its mostly hairless stems ranging from green to purple-tinged in color. The leaf blades are hairless on the upper surfaces, twisting, and up to 30 centimetres (12 inches) long. The inflorescence is a stiff, cylindrical bundle of spikelets 2 to 15 centimetres (3⁄4 to 6 inches) long with short, blunt bristles. The panicle may appear yellow or yellow-tinged. In New Zealand S. pumila can cover 20–40% of otherwise productive dairy farming pasture causing a loss in milk production. Setaria is a widespread genus of plants in the grass family. The name is derived from the Latin word seta, meaning "bristle" or "hair", which refers to the bristly spikelets. The genus includes over 100 species distributed in many tropical and temperate regions around the world,and members are commonly known as foxtail or bristle grasses. Several species of Setaria have been domesticated and used as staple crops throughout history: foxtail millet (S. italica), korali (S. pumila) in India, and, before the full domestication of maize, Setaria macrostachya in Mexico.Several species are still cultivated today as food or as animal fodder, such as foxtail millet (S. italica) and korali (S. pumila), while others are considered invasive weeds. Setaria viridis is currently being developed as a genetic model system for bioenergy grasses. Other species that have been cultivated as crops include Setaria palmifolia (highland pitpit) of Papua New Guinea, where it is cultivated as a green vegetable; Setaria parviflora (knot-root foxtail), historically cultivated in Mesoamerica; and Setaria sphacelata (African bristle grass) of Sudan, a "lost millet" of Nubia.