Setaria parviflora

Grass Family (Poaceae). Marsh bristlegrass is a warm season, weak, rhizomatous perennial. The height ranges from 1 to 3 feet. The leaf blade is flat, about 6 to 10 inches long, 1/4 inch wide, prominent midrib, and upper surface covered with soft hair. The leaf sheath is rounded with generally shorter than average internodes and often purple tinged. The ligule is a fringe of short hair. The seedhead is a spikelike panicle, 1 to 2 inches long, and yellowish in color with each spikelet surrounded by 5 or more yellow or purple bristles.

knotroot bristlegrass, yellow bristlegrass, knotroot foxtail, marsh bristle grass

Panicum glaucum var. brasiliense Trin. ex Nees:
Brazil (South America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Setaria parviflora var. parviflora :
Argentina (South America)
Belize (Mesoamerica)
Bolivia (South America)
Brazil (South America)
Chile (South America)
Colombia (South America)
Costa Rica (Mesoamerica)
Ecuador (South America)
El Salvador (Mesoamerica)
French Guiana (South America)
Guatemala (Mesoamerica)
Guyana (South America)
Honduras (Mesoamerica)
Mexico (Mesoamerica)
Nicaragua (Mesoamerica)
Panama (Mesoamerica)
Peru (South America)
Paraguay (South America)
Suriname (South America)
United States (North America)
Venezuela (South America)
Caribbean (Caribbean)
Canada (North America)
Uruguay (South America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Setaria imberbis fo. radicans Hack.:
Argentina (South America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Setaria flava var. pumila E. Fourn.:
Mexico (Mesoamerica)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Setaria geniculata var. latifolia E. Fourn.:
Mexico (Mesoamerica)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Setaria imberbis fo. flaviseta Hack.:
Argentina (South America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Setaria imberbis fo. brevispica Hack.:
Argentina (South America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Setaria gracilis fo. megalantha Stuck.:
Argentina (South America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Setaria gracilis fo. brevispica (Hack.) Hack.:
Bolivia (South America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Setaria gracilis fo. breviglumis Hack.:
Argentina (South America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Setaria tenella Desv.:
Peru (South America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Setaria imberbis fo. uberior Hack.:
Paraguay (South America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Setaria imberbis fo. breviseta Hack.:
Paraguay (South America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Setaria imberbis fo. longiseta Hack.:
Paraguay (South America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Setaria discolor Hack.:
Paraguay (South America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Setaria gracilis var. pauciseta (E. Desv.) B.K. Simon:
Australia (Oceania)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Panicum imberbe var. glauco-caesium Döll:
Uruguay (South America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Panicum imberbe var. latifolium Döll:
Brazil (South America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Panicum pallidefuscum Schumach.:
Ghana (Africa & Madagascar)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Setaria floriana Andersson:
Ecuador (South America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Setaria parviflora (Poir.) Kerguélen:
Argentina (South America)
Australia (Oceania)
Belize (Mesoamerica)
Bolivia (South America)
Brazil (South America)
Canada (North America)
Chile (South America)
Colombia (South America)
Costa Rica (Mesoamerica)
Ecuador (South America)
El Salvador (Mesoamerica)
French Guiana (South America)
Guatemala (Mesoamerica)
Guyana (South America)
Honduras (Mesoamerica)
Mexico (Mesoamerica)
Venezuela (South America)
Peru (South America)
Nicaragua (Mesoamerica)
Panama (Mesoamerica)
Caribbean (Caribbean)
United States (North America)
Suriname (South America)
Paraguay (South America)
Uruguay (South America)
Philippines (Asia)
New Guinea (Asia)
China (Asia)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Chaetochloa geniculata (Poir.) Millsp. & Chase:
Bolivia (South America)
Ecuador (South America)
Peru (South America)
United States (North America)
Caribbean (Caribbean)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Gulf of Mexico

United States

Origin: Native

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Present

Confidence: Confident

Type of Residency: Year-round

Global Range: MA to FL and TX, in the interior north to WV, IL, and KS, west to CA; tropical America to Argentina and Chile.

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Rhizomes present, Rhizome short and compact, stems close, Stems trailing, spreading or prostrate, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems geniculate, decumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at nodes, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem internodes solid or spongy, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems with inflorescence 1-2 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves shea thing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blades scabrous, roughened, or wrinkled, Ligule present, Ligule a fringe of hairs, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence a dense slender spike-like panicle or raceme, branches contracted, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence spike linear or cylindric, several times longer than wide, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets dorsally compressed or terete, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 1 fertile floret, Spikelets with 2 florets, Spikelet with 1 fertile floret and 1-2 sterile florets, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating below the glumes, Spikelets all subtended by bristles, Spikelet bristles 4-many, Spikelet bract s bristles not disarticulating with spikelets, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes distinctly unequal, Glumes shorter than adjacent lemma, Glume equal to or longer than spikelet, Glumes 3 nerved, Glumes 4-7 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma similar in texture to glumes, Lemma becoming indurate, enclosing palea and caryopsis, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma rugose, with cross wrinkles, or roughened, Lemma apex acute or acuminate, Lemma awnless, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea shorter than lemma, Palea 2 nerved or 2 keeled, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis.

Annual or short-lived perennial with basal buds or a short knotty rhizome. Culms erect or geniculate, 20–90 cm tall. Leaf sheaths keeled, glabrous; leaf blades stiff, flat or involute, 5–30 × 0.2–0.8 cm, glabrous or adaxial surface pilose at base, apex acuminate; ligule ca. 1 mm. Panicle densely cylindrical, 2–15 × 0.5–1.2 cm; branches reduced to a single mature spikelet subtended by 8–12 bristles; axis pubescent; bristles golden or purplish brown when mature, 2–3 times spikelet length. Spikelets elliptic, 1.8–2.5 mm; lower glume ovate, 1/3 as long as spikelet, acute; upper glume broadly ovate, ca. 1/2 as long as spikelet, obtuse; lower floret neuter; lower palea firmly membranous, lanceolate, about as long as the upper floret but narrower, keels wingless, minutely papillose; upper lemma ovate-elliptic, finely rugose. Fl. and fr. Oct–Dec. 2n = 72.

Cenchrus parviflorus Poiret in Lamarck, Encycl. 6: 52. 1804; Chaetochloa geniculata (Poiret) Millspaugh & Chase; Panicum geniculatum Poiret; P. pallidefuscum Schumacher; P. rubiginosum Steudel; Setaria glauca (Linnaeus) P. Beauvois var. pallidefusca (Schumacher) T. Koyama; S. gracilis Kunth; S. pallidefusca (Schumacher) Stapf & C. E. Hubbard.

Depth range based on 8 specimens in 1 taxon.

Environmental ranges
  Depth range (m): 0.5 - 0.5
 
Note: this information has not been validated. Check this *note*. Your feedback is most welcome.

Comments: Open ground, pastures, cultivated soil, salt marshes, and moist ground along the coast.

Mountain slopes, roadsides, waste places. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan [throughout the tropics and subtropics].

It grows from late March or early April until fall from short, knotty, branching rhizomes. Foliage is a distinctive whitish green. The base of the plant is slender and wiry. It produces two and sometimes three seed crops during one growing season the first one during May or June. Bristles are left along the seed stalk after the seeds disseminate. It grows best on moist or wet sites. In Florida, it grows on wet sandy soils, sloughs, and acid flatwoods. In Texas and Louisiana, it grows well on salty prairie sites; also grows on salt marshes if water level is relatively low.

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 0
Specimens with Barcodes: 3
Species With Barcodes: 1

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: N5 - Secure

Rounded Global Status Rank: G5 - Secure

Reasons: Widespread distribution, even when treated as a American endemic excluding the European species S. gracilis.

Please consult the PLANTS Web site and your State Department of Natural Resources for this plant’s current status, such as, state noxious status and wetland indicator values.

Please contact your local NRCS Field Office.

This grass is seldom abundant enough to be a key management species. For maximum production, no more than 50 percent of current year's growth by weight should be removed during growing season. Summer grazing deferments of at least 90 days every 2 to 3 years improve plant vigor. This grass can withstand controlled burning if done after September.

Marsh bristlegrass is grazed moderately by livestock, usually during the spring and summer. It becomes unpalatable in the fall and provides poor forage after maturity. When grazed for roughage, it should be supplemented with a mineral and protein concentrate. Birds readily eat the seeds.