Setaria verticillata

Lively foxtail ( Setaria verticillata )

The whirlwind foxtail ( Setaria verticillata ) or burdock foxtail is a plant that belongs to the genus of the bristle millet ( Setaria ) in the family of grasses ( Poaceae ).

Description

The whirlwind foxtail is an annual plant that reaches heights of growth from 10 to 100 centimeters. Their stems are erect or ascending knickig. The ligule is a fringe of hair. The leaves are 4-25 cm long and 5-21 mm wide.

The Rispige inflorescence is contracted into a cylindrical dense Ährenrispe which is only interrupted in the lower part. The bristles are 3-7 mm long, their spiked hair backwards, thereby exerting the inflorescence like a leech. This is a good indicator of the typical variety of this kind is the spikelets oblong- elliptical, 2 to 2.2 mm long. Its upper glume is as long as the spikelet and five annoying, the lower glume is only 1/3 as long as the spikelet. The lemma of the upper, hermaphrodite flower is thickened cartilaginous and between the little protruding keels weak querrunzelig with narrow chosen sides.

The flowering period extends from June to September.

The chromosome number is 2n = 36

Occurrence

The whirlwind foxtail is found in southern and central Europe to the Middle East and North Africa, but it is absent in the tropics and subtropics. However, it is dragged around the world.

The whirlwind foxtail grows in gardens, root crop fields and vineyards to dry and warm sites on nutrient-rich and well-fertilized sandy- loamy soils. It is a nitrogen pointer and heat pointer. It grows mainly at lower altitudes and increases only in the Southern Alps at altitudes of over 1200 meters on.

Variability

Closely related to the hustling foxtail is a clan that is considered more often as a separate species, the Deceptive foxtail or Kurzborstige foxtail ( Setaria gussonei, syn. S. ambigua, S. verticilliformis ). It is to be distinguished on its less dense inflorescence in which the main axis between the spikelet is visible in the lower part and in the inflorescence does not act like a leech, because the bristles are not directed forward and backward. For her, the bristles are also only 3 mm long. This clan is probably better but only as a variety ( Setaria verticillata var ambigua ( Guss. ) Parl ) provided hustling foxtail.