Setaria pumila (Yellow foxtail)

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Setaria pumila (Poir.) Roem. & Schult.

Yellow foxtail, yellow bristlegrass, pigeon grass, cattail grass

Kingdom	Plantae	Plants, but not fungi, lichens, or algae
Subkingdom	Tracheobionta	Vascular plants—plants with a “circulatory system” for delivering water and nutrients
Division	Magnoliophyta	Flowering plants, also known as angiosperms
Class	Liliopsida	Monocots (plants with a single seed leaf); includes the lily family
Subclass	Commelinidae	Dayflowers and spiderworts, and several others
Order	Cyperales	Flowering plants including grasses
Family	Poaceae	Grasses (but not sedges or rushes)
Genus	Setaria	From Latin saeta, “a bristle or hair,” for the bristly spikelets
Species	pumila	“Dwarf”

About plant names...

A native of Europe and Asia, yellow foxtail is now naturalized and widespread in North America.

Identification: Yellow foxtail grows in clumps to heights of 3′ (1 m). Grass blades are flat or sometimes "keeled," folded so they look like the cross-section of a boat, and 4-12″ (10-30 cm) by ⅛-½″ (5-12 mm) wide. Just above the point where the grass blade attaches to the stem, there are a lot of small hairs, called the ligule, on the inside of the blade. (In other related grasses, the ligule looks quite different.) The flowerhead is ¾-6″ (2-15 cm) long and about ⅜″ (1 cm) in diameter, and erect rather than nodding. The flowerhead is made up of spikelets, small seed pods, with bristles that appear yellow at maturity. It blooms from June through December.

9/25/2010 · Nashua River Rail Trail, Groton Center, Groton, Massachusetts · ≈ 5 × 3½″ (13 × 9.2 cm) ID is uncertain

10/15/2008 · Back Yard, Pepperell, Massachusetts · ≈ 7 × 11″ (18 × 27 cm) ID is uncertain

Here are the foxtails:

	*Setaria faberi*	You are here Setaria pumila	*Setaria viridis*
Common Name	giant foxtail	yellow foxtail	green foxtail
Plant	Plants are 2-5′ (60-152 cm) tall, the *largest* foxtails, with multiple stems. The grass blades alternate, reaching up to 1′ (38 cm) long and ¾″ (1.9 cm) wide.	Plants grow in clumps to heights of 3′ (1 m).	Plants grow in clumps with erect stems up to 3′ (1 m) high.
Flowers	Flowerheads are up to 7″ (17 cm) long. Bristly and *drooping* under its own weight, they are green to *light brown or purplish* over time.	¾-6″ (2-15 cm) long × ⅜″ (1 cm) in diameter, *erect. The flowerhead is made up of spikelets with bristles that appear yellow at maturity*. It blooms from June through December.	*Green* panicle up to 6″ (15 cm) in length and ¼-⅝″ (8.5-16 mm) around, usually erect, sometimes slightly nodding.
Leaves	Not very stiff, often drooping. Upper leaf surfaces usually have *scattered fine, stiff, bristled hairs,* but they may also be smooth. Leaf blade edges have tiny teeth that make them feel rough. At the base of each grass blade, just above where it connects to the stem, there is a ringlike tuft of white hairs up to ⅛″ (3 mm) long.	Grass blades are flat or sometimes "keeled," 4-12″ (10-30 cm) by ⅛-½″ (5-12 mm). Just above the point where the grass blade attaches to the stem, there are a lot of *small hairs* (ligule), on the inside of the blade.	Leaf blades are medium dull green, *rough but hairless* (except sometimes near the edges), and up to 1′ (40 cm) × ⅞″ (2.5 cm).
Range/ Zones
Habitats	Meadows, fields, landfills, mined land, construction sites, vacant lots, yard boundaries, gardens, railroads, roadsides, and waste land.	Roadsides, ditch banks, fields, pastures, cropland, orchards, vineyards, gardens, turf, disturbed sites.	Margins of woods, upland prairies, streambanks, pond margins, pastures, fields, lawns, cultivated areas, disturbed sites, roadsides, railroads.
Type	Wild	Wild	Wild
Occurrence	Common, sometimes invasive.	Fairly common	Common