Setaria pumila

Red foxtail ( Setaria pumila )

The Red foxtail ( Setaria pumila ) is a plant that belongs to the genus of the bristle millet ( Setaria ) in the family of grasses ( Poaceae ).

Description

The Red foxtail is an annual plant, reaching heights of growth from 10 to 130 cm. Your erect or geniculate - ascending stems grow in tufts. The leaf sheaths are strongly compressed and bare. The ligule ( ligule ) is a lash from 0.5 to 1 mm long hairs. The leaves are flat, 10-30 cm long and 4-10 mm wide, rough on the upper side, smooth on the bottom.

The drum-shaped, upright, dense Rispige inflorescence is 2-15 cm long and wide ( measured without the bristles ) 6-8 mm; it is very noticeable by the yellow to fox red bristles. The side branches carry one or two spikelets and to four to twelve bristles 3-8 mm long. The spiked hair the bristles are pointing forward. The spikelet is broadly ovate and 2.8 to 3.1 mm long. The lower glume is three annoying, upper glume acuminate and five annoying; it is ½ to 2/3 as long as the spikelet; the lemma of the upper, hermaphrodite flower and glume are heavily cross- wrinkled. The dust bags are 1 to 1.5 mm long.

The flowering period extends from July to September.

The chromosome number is 2n = 36 or 72

Occurrence

The main distribution area of the Red foxtail ranges from southern and central Europe to North Africa, Siberia and the Far East. But it comes about in many areas of the world before as a neophyte.

The Red foxtail grows on nutrient-rich sand, clay or loess soil in root crop fields and vineyards. It rises in the Alps to a maximum of 1,400 meters. It is an indicator of warmer air layers.