Setaria pumila (Poir.) Roem. & Schult.
Yellow Foxtail (Wood Groundsel)
Poaceae (Grass family)
Introduction to Vascular Plants
Yellow Foxtail (Wood Groundsel)
Poaceae (Grass family)
Introduction to Vascular Plants
SUBTAXA PRESENT IN BC
Setaria pumila ssp. pumila
Species Information
General:
Annual grass from fibrous roots, basally branching; stems decumbent to erect, up to 100 cm tall.
Leaves:
Sheaths keeled, smooth; blades flat to folded, 4-11 mm wide, more or less pimpled or soft-hairy on the upper surfaces near the base, the hairs 2-4 mm long; ligules with the membranous basal portions about as long as the fringes, scarcely 1 mm long.
Flowers:
Inflorescence a cylindrical panicle, mostly 4-10 cm long, about 1 cm wide when pressed; spikelets 2-flowered, 3-3.6 mm long, each subtended by (4) 5 or 6 (20), stiff short, yellow bristles that are up to 3 times as long as the spikelet, the bristles directed upwards; lower glumes 3-nerved, 1/3 the length of the spikelets, the upper ones 5-nerved, 2/3 as long; lower flowers male or sterile, the upper fertile, the lower flowers with lemmas that include well-developed paleas just as long; fertile lemmas finely but distinctly cross-wrinkled.
USDA Species Characteristics
Flower Colour:
White
Blooming Period:
Summer
Fruit/Seed characteristics:
Colour: Brown
Present from Fall to Winter
Source: The USDA