Setaria viridis
Encyclopedia
Setaria viridis is a species of grass
known by many common names, including green foxtail and green bristlegrass. It is native to Eurasia, but it is known on most continents as an introduced species
and is closely related to Setaria faberi
, a noxious weed. It is a hardy grass which grows in many types of urban, cultivated, and disturbed habitat, including vacant lots, sidewalks, railroads, lawns, and at the margins of fields. It is the wild
antecedent
of the crop foxtail millet
.
This is an annual grass with decumbent or erect stems growing up to a meter long, and known to reach two meters or more at times. The leaf blades are up to 40 centimeters long and 2.5 wide and glabrous. The inflorescence
is a dense, compact, spikelike panicle
up to 20 centimeters long, growing erect or sometimes nodding at the tip only. Spikelets are 1.8 - 2.2 mm long. Each is subtended by up to three stiff bristles. Its fertile lemmas are finely cross-wrinkled.
Setaria viridis is often confused with S. faberi, (Chinese or Giant Foxtail), which has a sparse, soft hairs on the leaves and a nodding inflorescence. (As of November 13, 2010, the photo presented in this article is S. faberi, not S. viridis.) Setaria viridis is closely related to S. italica (Foxtail Millet), which has larger spikelets about 3 mm long and usually smooth, shiny upper lemmas. Foxtail Millet was cultivated in China by 2700 B.C. and during the Stone Age in Europe.
S. viridis has been proposed as a model to study C4 photosynthesis and related bioenergy grasses . S. viridis has a short life cycle, is transformable and is currently being sequenced. Genetic resources are currently being developed by a number of groups.
Grass
Grasses, or more technically graminoids, are monocotyledonous, usually herbaceous plants with narrow leaves growing from the base. They include the "true grasses", of the Poaceae family, as well as the sedges and the rushes . The true grasses include cereals, bamboo and the grasses of lawns ...
known by many common names, including green foxtail and green bristlegrass. It is native to Eurasia, but it is known on most continents as an introduced species
Introduced species
An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...
and is closely related to Setaria faberi
Setaria faberi
Setaria faberi, the Giant Foxtail, also known as Chinese foxtail, Chinese millet, giant bristlegrass, or nodding foxtail, is an Asian grass. It is a summer annual, with plants emerging from seeds in the spring, and setting seeds in the late summer or fall.Giant foxtails prefer compacted soils,...
, a noxious weed. It is a hardy grass which grows in many types of urban, cultivated, and disturbed habitat, including vacant lots, sidewalks, railroads, lawns, and at the margins of fields. It is the wild
Wild
The term wild generally refers to:* Wildlife, all non-domesticated plants, animals, and other organisms* Wilderness or Wilderness area, a natural environment on Earth* Wildness, the quality of being wild or untamedWild may also refer to:...
antecedent
Antecedent (genealogy)
In genealogy or in phylogenetic studies of evolutionary biology an antecedent, antecessor or antecedents are predecessors in a family line. I am the descendants of my grandparents, they are my antecedents. This term has particular utility in evolutionary coalescent theory, which models the process...
of the crop foxtail millet
Foxtail millet
Foxtail millet is the second most widely planted species of millet, and the most important in East Asia. It has the longest history of cultivation among the millets, having been grown in China since sometime in the sixth millennium BC...
.
This is an annual grass with decumbent or erect stems growing up to a meter long, and known to reach two meters or more at times. The leaf blades are up to 40 centimeters long and 2.5 wide and glabrous. The inflorescence
Inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...
is a dense, compact, spikelike panicle
Panicle
A panicle is a compound raceme, a loose, much-branched indeterminate inflorescence with pedicellate flowers attached along the secondary branches; in other words, a branched cluster of flowers in which the branches are racemes....
up to 20 centimeters long, growing erect or sometimes nodding at the tip only. Spikelets are 1.8 - 2.2 mm long. Each is subtended by up to three stiff bristles. Its fertile lemmas are finely cross-wrinkled.
Setaria viridis is often confused with S. faberi, (Chinese or Giant Foxtail), which has a sparse, soft hairs on the leaves and a nodding inflorescence. (As of November 13, 2010, the photo presented in this article is S. faberi, not S. viridis.) Setaria viridis is closely related to S. italica (Foxtail Millet), which has larger spikelets about 3 mm long and usually smooth, shiny upper lemmas. Foxtail Millet was cultivated in China by 2700 B.C. and during the Stone Age in Europe.
S. viridis has been proposed as a model to study C4 photosynthesis and related bioenergy grasses . S. viridis has a short life cycle, is transformable and is currently being sequenced. Genetic resources are currently being developed by a number of groups.