Plant Guide > Grasses > Yellow Foxtail Grass

Yellow Foxtail Grass

Yellow Foxtail GrassYellow Foxtail. Pigeon-grass. Setaria glauca (L.) Beauv.

Annual. Naturalized from Europe.

Stem 1-4 ft. tall, smooth, branched, erect. Lower sheaths loose and
flattened. Ligule a ring of short hairs. Leaves 2'-12' long, 2"-5" wide, somewhat hairy at base.

Spike (spike-like panicle) 1'-4' long, cylindrical, densely flowered, clothed in tawny yellow bristles. Spikelets 1-flowered, about 1 1/2" long, surrounded by a cluster of 5-10 upwardly barbed bristles which rise from below the base of each spikelet and exceed the spikelet in length. Scales 4; outer scales unequal; 3d scale sometimes enclosing a palet and staminate flower; flowering scale of perfect flower wrinkled, thick, and very convex. Stamens 3, purple. Stigmas purple.

Cultivated ground and waste places. July to September.

Throughout North America, except in the extreme north.

Yellow Foxtail picture