Setaria viridis

Green foxtail ( Setaria viridis)

Green foxtail ( Setaria viridis) is a plant that belongs to the grasses ( Poaceae ).

Description

The green foxtail grows as a herbaceous plant, reaching heights of growth of 5 to 50 cm. Your blades is knickig ascending. The leaves are green with light or violet midrib and bare. The ligule is a fringe of hair.

The flower Nourish acts during the upward swipe smooth, it is compact and not interrupted. The bristles are 5 to 10 mm long, soft, thin, green, purple crowded later. The lemma of the upper floret are smooth or weakly structured, upper glume as long as the lemma.

Typical features

Plant appears at the juvenile stage intense green, crowded more reddish in the adult stage. Without ligule, but with a wreath of fine, long eyelashes.

Young plant

Strong, fast bestockend; Leaf sheath usually flattened, with hair bar.

Straws

The blade is very thin and is not hairy. At the end of the straw he rises very knickig.

Fairly broad, glabrous; youngest leaf rolled; no ligule, but a wreath of fine, long eyelashes; without auricles. Leaf blade glabrous and pointed, leaf sheath usually flattened and with hair bar.

Flowers

Flowered spikelets at the base from it, a long, rough, green or greenish - yellow bristles envelope. In the full development of long pseudo-spikes protrude beyond the top sheet.

Heyday

Summer - early autumn

Location

One finds the green foxtail weed quite often in societies deeper layers, especially in Hack fields, vineyards and gardens, even on debris and on trails. It prefers loose, base-and nitrogen-rich pretty, well-aerated soils. It grows on limestone soils and sandy loam soils that are fertilized, very well. After Ellenberg she is a half-light plant, preferably nitrogen-rich sites and is a Klassencharakterart of ruderal and related field and garden Beikrautgesellschaften ( Chenopodietea ).

Main Keimzeit

Germinate in spring and early summer. The foxtail a heat germinate and requires at least 15 ° C as the minimum germination temperature.

Ecology

The Green foxtail is an annual, sommerannuell, a C4 plant, a heat Keimer and a archaeophyte. It is partly funded by corn herbicides, as they have a similar resistance to triazines has as the corn. The flowers are wind-pollinated, the " Langstaubfädigen type". It is a Ährenrispengras, but the individual branches of the panicle bear no flowers, but are converted to ragged - rough bristles. The fruits are caryopses. They fall to maturity with the spikelets from. They are widely used as animal spreader and spreader as wind. Also spread by humans takes place ( cultural guides ). Finally, a spread over the crop of pigeons was observed. Fruit ripening in August.

Importance

Widely used. The foxtail quickly forms a dense carpet that goes in the fields with respect to nutrient and water competition noticeable and might reduce the income of a field.