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Setaria parviflora

(Knotroot Bristle Grass)

Interesting Facts

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Common Names

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Click on the language to view common names.

Common Names in English:

Knotroot Bristle Grass, Knotroot Bristlegrass, Knotroot Foxtail, Marsh Bristle Grass, Marsh Bristlegrass, Slender Pigeon Grass, Yellow Bristle Grass, Yellow Bristlegrass

Common Names in Japanese:

Fushine Kin Enokoro (As S Gracilis)

Common Names in Thai:

Ya Hang Ma Ching Chok (As S Geniculata)

Description

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Family Poaceae

Annual or perennial herbs, or tall woody bamboos . Flowering stems (culms ) jointed , internodes hollow or solid; branches arising singly from nodes and subtended by a leaf sheath and 2-keeled prophyll, often fascicled in bamboos. Leaves arranged alternately in 2 ranks , differentiated into sheath, blade , and an adaxial erect appendage at sheath/blade junction (ligule) ; leaf sheath surrounding and supporting culm-internode, split to base or infrequently tubular with partially or completely fused margins , modified with reduced blade in bamboos (culm sheaths) ; leaf blades divergent, usually long, narrow and flat, but varying from inrolled and filiform to ovate , veins parallel, sometimes with cross-connecting veinlets (especially in bamboos) ; ligule membranous or a line of hairs . Inflorescence terminal or axillary , an open, contracted , or spikelike panicle, or composed of lax to spikelike racemes arranged along an elongate central axis, or digitate, paired , or occasionally solitary; axillary inflorescences often many, subtended by spatheoles (specialized bladeless leaf sheaths) and gathered into a leafy compound panicle; spikelets often aggregated into complex clusters in bamboos. Spikelets composed of distichous bracts arranged along a slender axis (rachilla) ; typically 2 lowest bracts (glumes ) empty, subtending 1 to many florets ; glumes often poorly differentiated from accompanying bracts in bamboos. Florets composed of 2 opposing bracts enclosing a single small flower, outer bract (lemma) clasping the more delicate, usually 2-keeled inner bract (palea) ; base of floret often with thickened prolongation articulated with rachilla (callus) ; lemma often with apical or dorsal bristle (awn ), glumes also sometimes awned . Flowers bisexual or unisexual ; lodicules (small scales representing perianth) 2, rarely 3 or absent, 3 to many in bamboos, hyaline or fleshy ; stamens 3 rarely 1, 2, 6, or more in some bamboos, hypogynous, filaments capillary , anthers versatile; ovary 1-celled, styles (1 or) 2(rarely 3), free or united at base, topped by feathery stigmas, exserted from sides or apex of floret. Fruit normally a dry indehiscent caryopsis with thin pericarp firmly adherent to seed, pericarp rarely free, fleshy in some bamboos; embryo small or large; hilum punctate to linear .

About 700 genera and 11,000 species: widely distributed in all regions of the world.[1]

Genus Setaria

Annuals or perennials . Culms usually tufted , slender to robust or canelike. Leaf blades linear to lanceolate, sometimes plicate or narrowed to a false petiole ; ligule ciliate from a membranous base . Inflorescence a panicle, dense and spikelike or open with the spikelets contracted around the primary branches; spikelets (or some of them) subtended by one to several bristles which persist on the branches after the spikelets fall . Spikelets elliptic , plano-convex , sometimes gibbous , awnless, florets 2; glumes and lower lemma membranous to herbaceous; lower glume ovate from a clasping base, usually less than 1/2 spikelet length, 3-5-veined; upper glume half as long to equaling spikelet, several-veined; lower floret staminate or neuter , sometimes sulcate , its palea present, reduced or absent; upper lemma crustaceous, strongly convex , rugose , punctate or smooth , margins inrolled . x = 9.

About 130 species: tropics and subtropics, extending to warm-temperate regions of the world; 14 species (three endemic, one introduced ) in China.

The bristles in the inflorescence represent modified branchlets . The genus includes pasture grasses, a cereal crop , and a few noxious weeds .[2]

Physical Description

Species Setaria parviflora

Annual or short-lived perennial with basal buds or a short knotty rhizome. Culms erect or geniculate , 20-90 cm tall. Leaf sheaths keeled , glabrous ; leaf blades stiff, flat or involute , 5-30 × 0.2-0.8 cm, glabrous or adaxial surface pilose at base , apex acuminate; ligule ca. 1 mm. Panicle densely cylindrical, 2-15 × 0.5-1.2 cm; branches reduced to a single mature spikelet subtended by 8-12 bristles ; axis pubescent ; bristles golden or purplish brown when mature, 2-3 times spikelet length. Spikelets elliptic , 1.8-2.5 mm; lower glume ovate , 1/3 as long as spikelet, acute; upper glume broadly ovate, ca. 1/2 as long as spikelet, obtuse ; lower floret neuter ; lower palea firmly membranous, lanceolate, about as long as the upper floret but narrower, keels wingless, minutely papillose ; upper lemma ovate-elliptic, finely rugose . Fl. and fr. Oct-Dec. 2n = 72. [source]

Forms with perennating basal buds persisting for more than one season are sometimes separated as a different species, but there are no other distinguishing features and this character is probably of little significance. Specimens lacking basal parts become impossible to assign to species. However, if they are separated, Setaria pallidefusca is the correct name for the annual form. [source]

The perennial form of Setaria parviflora has been known as S. geniculata P. Beauvois, but that name was based not on Panicum geniculatum Poiret (1798), as has been widely supposed, but on P. geniculatum Willdenow (1809), which applies to a different species. [source]

Habit: Evergreen .

Flowers: Bloom Period: blooms repeatedly • Flower Color: bronze, brown, green

Size/Age/Growth

Size: 6-12" tall.

Habitat

Mountain slopes , roadsides, waste places[3].

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 4,653 meters (0 to 15,266 feet).[4]

Biology

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Reproduction

Duration: Perennial

Growth

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Full Sun .

Taxonomy

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Unambiguous Synonyms

  1. Cenchrus parviflorus Poiret in Lamarck, Encycl. 6: 52. 1804
  2. Chaetochloa geniculata (Lam.) Millsp. & Chase
  3. Chaetochloa geniculata (Poiret) Millspaugh & Chase
  4. Chaetochloa imberbis (Poir.) Scribn.
  5. P. pallidefuscum Schumacher
  6. P. rubiginosum Steudel
  7. Panicum geniculatum Lam.
  8. Panicum geniculatum Poiret
  9. Setaria geniculata auct. non (Wild.) Beauv.
  10. Setaria glauca (Linnaeus) P. Beauvois Var. pallidefusca (Schumacher) T. Koyama
  11. Setaria Glauca Parviflora
  12. Setaria gracilis Kunth
  13. Setaria Lutescens Parviflora
  14. Setaria pallidefusca (Schumacher) Stapf & C. E. Hubbard.


Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name . Latest taxonomic scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

Place of publication : Lejeunia sér. 2, 120:161. 1987

Name verified on 15-May-1992 by ARS Systematic Botanists. Last updated: 09-Oct-2003

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Setaria

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 452 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus. Here are just 100 of them:

S. abyssinica · S. acromelaena · S. acuta · S. adhaerans · S. adhaerens (Tropical Barbed Bristle Grass) · S. adhaerens var. antrorsa · S. adharens · S. adherens · S. aequalis · S. affinis · S. albida · S. albovillosa · S. almaspicata · S. alonsoi · S. alopecurus · S. alpestris · S. ambigua · S. anceps · S. angustifolia · S. angustissima · S. antillarum · S. aparine · S. apiculata · S. appendiculata · S. arenaria · S. argentina · S. arizonica (Arizona Bristlegrass) · S. aspera · S. atrata · S. atroseta · S. aurea · S. auricoma · S. auriculata · S. australiensis · S. austrocaledonica · S. autumnalis · S. avellae · S. aversa · S. avettae · S. barbata (East Indian Bristlegrass) · S. barbigera · S. barbinodis · S. barretoi · S. basiclada · S. basifissa · S. basiseta · S. bathiei · S. bequaertii · S. berlandieri · S. bernardi · S. berteroniana · S. biflora · S. blepharochaeta · S. bongaensis · S. boninensis · S. bosseri · S. brachiariaeformis · S. brachiata · S. brachystachya · S. brasiliensis · S. braunii · S. breviseta · S. brevispica · S. brigalow · S. brownii · S. buchananii · S. bussei · S. caespitosa · S. californica · S. cana · S. canescens · S. carnei · S. caudata · S. caudula · S. cenchroides · S. cernua · S. chamaeraphoides · S. chapmanii · S. chevalieri · S. chondrachne · S. chrysantha · S. ciliolata · S. cirrosa · S. clementii · S. clivalis · S. commutata · S. comosa · S. compacta · S. composita · S. compressa · S. constricta · S. cordobensis · S. corrugata (Coastal Bristlegrass) · S. criniformis · S. crus-ardeae · S. dasyura · S. decipiens · S. depauperata · S. depressa · S. dielsii

More Info

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Further Reading

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  • Chen Shouliang, Jin Yuexing, Zhuang Tide, Fang Wenzhe, Sheng Guoying, Liu Liang, Wu Zhenlan, Lu Shenglian, Sun Bisin, Hu Zhihao, Wang Song, Sun Xiangzhong, Wang Huiqin, Yang Xilin, Wang Chaopin, Li Binggui & Wen Shaobin. 1990. Gramineae (Poaceae) (4). In: Chen Shouliang, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 10(1):1401
  • Chen Shouliang, Zhuang Tide, Fang Wenzhe, Sheng Guoying, Jin Yuexing, Liu Liang, Sun Bisin, Hu Zhihao & Wang Song. 1997. Gramineae (Poaceae) (5). In: Chen Shouliang, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 10(2): 1301
  • Liu Liang, Zhu Taiping, Chen Wenli, Wu Zhenlan & Lu Shenglian. Gramineae (Poaceae) (2). In: Liu Liang, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 9(2): 1405
  • Lu Sheng-lian, Sun Yong-hua, Liu Shang-wu, Yang Yong-chang, Wu Zhen-lan, Kuo Pen-chao, Yang Hsi-ling, Wang Chao-pin & Tsui Nai-ran. 1987. Gramineae (3). In: Kuo Pen-chao, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 9(3): 1329
  • Wang Zhengping, Ye Guanghan, Yang Yaling, Yu Zehua, Hu Chenhua, Geng Bojie, Feng Xuelin, Jia Liangzhi, Xia Nianhe, Li Dezhu, Zhang Weiping, Xue Jiru, Zhu Zhengde, Zhao Qiseng, Chen Shouliang, Sheng Guoying, Chen Shaoyun, Yao Changyu, Lu Jionglin, Sun Jiliang, Lin Wantao, Yi Tongpei, Zhao Huiru, Wen Taihui & Dai Qihui. 1996. Gramineae (Poaceae) (1).

    • Notes

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    Contributors

    Data Sources

    Accessed through GBIF Data Portal November 22, 2007:

    Identifiers

    Footnotes

    1. Shou-liang Chen, De-Zhu Li, Guanghua Zhu, Zhenlan Wu, Sheng-lian Lu, Liang Liu, Zheng-ping Wang, Bi-xing Sun, Zheng-de Zhu, Nianhe Xia, Liang-zhi Jia, Zhenhua Guo, Wenli Chen, Xiang Chen, Yang Guangyao, Sylvia M. Phillips, Chris Stapleton, Robert J. Soreng, Susan G. Aiken, Nikolai N. Tzvelev, Paul M. Peterson, Stephen A. Renvoize, Marina V. Olonova & Klaus Ammann "Poaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 22. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
    2. Shou-liang Chen & Sylvia M. Phillips "Setaria". in Flora of China Vol. 22 Page 1, 499, 531, 537, 549. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
    3. "Setaria parviflora". in Flora of China Vol. 22 Page 532, 535. Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
    4. Mean = 455.420 meters (1,494.160 feet), Standard Deviation = 796.910 based on 1,643 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]
    Last Revised: 2009-08-30