Foxtail Bristlegrass

This grass (Foxtail Millet) has been cultivated as a cereal in China since ancient times and exists in many races differing in size, shape, and hairiness of the panicle, color of the grain, and length of the bristles. It is also a useful forage grass. It is thought to be derived from Setaria viri-dis.

Annuals; culms stout, erect, ligule a ring of hairs. Inflorescence a spike-like panicle, 10-30 cm long, pendent when mature, main axis densely hairy. Spikelets 2-flowered, elliptic, subtended by several bristles, falling off from bristles, awnless, 2.5-3 mm long, glume membranaceous; lower glume to 1/3 as long as spikelet, 3-veined; upper glume obtuse, nearly as long as spikelet, 5-7-veined; lower lemma as long as spikelet, 5-veined, palea hyaline, lanceolate, bifid, upper lemma oblong, slightly indurate, ca. 2 mm long, palea flattened, as long as lemma; anthers ca. 0.8 mm long. Caryopsis tightly enclosed between hardened lemma and palea.

Annual. Culms robust, erect, up to 150 cm, nodes glabrous. Leaf sheaths glabrous or pubescent, ciliate; leaf blades linear-lanceolate, 15–45 × 0.6–2 cm, usually glabrous; ligule 1–3 mm. Panicle dense, lobed, 6–40 × 0.5–5 cm, very variable, erect or pendent when mature; spikelets subtended by several bristles 1–5 times spikelet length; axis villous. Spikelets elliptic to ovate or subglobose, 2–3 mm, yellow, brown, orange or purple; lower glume 1/3–1/2 as long as spikelet; upper glume about as long as spikelet, 5–7(–9)-veined, obtuse; lower lemma equal to spikelet, 5–7-veined; lower palea absent or narrow, up to 1/2 as long as lemma; upper floret yellow or orange-yellow, oblong or ovate-oblong, cartilaginous, deciduous at maturity, finely rugose to smooth and shiny. Fl. and fr. summer to autumn. 2n = 18.

Widely cultivated.

This species is widely cultivated in Taiwan, particularly by the aboriginal people and exists in an innumerable number of races differing in size, color of the grains, hairness of the panicle, and in many other ways. The grain is cooked as a porridge or made into beer, and is also the cheif food for cage birds.

1100-1800 m

Cultivated. Anhui, Beijing, Fujian, Guangdong, Guizhou, Hainan, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [origin uncertain; now introduced and cultivated sporadically worldwide].

Panicum italicum L. Sp. Pl. 56. 1756.

Panicum italicum Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 56. 1753; Chae-tochloa germanica (Miller) Smyth; C. italica (Linnaeus) Scribner; C. italica var. germanica (Miller) Scribner; Chamaeraphis italica (Linnaeus) Kuntze; C. italica var. germanica (Miller) Kuntze; Panicum chinense Trinius; P. germanicum Miller; P. italicum var. germanicum (Miller) Koeler; Pennisetum germa-nicum (Miller) Baumgarten; P. italicum (Linnaeus) R. Brown; Setaria germanica (Miller) P. Beauvois.