Setaria viridis

What to Eat

Edible parts: Seeds, Cereal

The small seeds can be used in the same ways as rice or millet — boiled, roasted, or ground into flour. Roasted seed is also said to serve as a coffee substitute.

Where to Find It

It is a temperate plant. It is drought resistant. It can grow in arid places. In Argentina it grows from sea level to 1,000 m above sea level. In Sichuan. In Yunnan.

Afghanistan, Africa, Andorra, Argentina, Asia, Australia, Austria, Balkans, Belgium, Bermuda, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Central Asia, Chile, China, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Europe, France, Germany, Greece, Guyana, Himalayas, Hungary, India, Indochina, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Mediterranean, Middle East, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, Niger, North Africa, Oman, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, PNG, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Scandinavia, SE Asia, Slovenia, Socotra, Somalia, South America, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tasmania, Thailand, Tibet, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, UAE, Uruguay, USA, West Africa, Yemen, Yugoslavia,

How to Identify

An annual millet grass. It forms tufts. It can be 70-150 cm tall. The culms are usually bent at the lower nodes. The leaf blades are thin and flat in cross section. They are 5-30 cm long and 3-12 mm wide. The taper to a fine point. The flowers are bristly. The teeth of the bristles point upwards. It is similar to Setaria verticillata except for some flower details.

How to Grow

Propagation: Sow seed in early spring in a greenhouse, barely covering it. Germination is usually quick and good. Prick out seedlings into individual pots as soon as they are large enough to handle and grow them on quickly. Plant out in late spring after the last expected frosts. For larger quantities, seed can be sown in situ in mid-spring, though plants may flower later and may not ripen seed in a cool summer.

Medicinal Uses

The seed is diuretic, emollient, febrifuge, refrigerant, and tonic. The plant can be crushed and mixed with water to make an external application for treating bruises.

Other Uses

None known.

Setaria viridis is a species of grass known by many common names, including green foxtail, green bristlegrass, and wild foxtail millet. It is sometimes considered a subspecies of Setaria italica. It is native to Eurasia, but it is known on most continents as an introduced species and is closely related to Setaria faberi, a noxious weed. It is a hardy grass which grows in many types of urban, cultivated, and disturbed habitat, including vacant lots, sidewalks, railroads, lawns, and at the margins of fields. It is the wild antecedent of the crop foxtail millet. This is an annual grass with decumbent or erect stems growing up to a meter long, and known to reach two meters or more at times. The leaf blades are up to 40 centimeters long and 2.5 wide and glabrous. The inflorescence is a dense, compact, spikelike panicle up to 20 centimeters long, growing erect or sometimes nodding at the tip only. Spikelets are 1.8–2.2 mm long. Each is subtended by up to three stiff bristles. Its fertile lemmas are finely cross-wrinkled. Setaria viridis is often confused with S. faberi, (Chinese or Giant Foxtail), which has sparse, soft hairs on the leaves and a nodding inflorescence. Setaria viridis is closely related to S. italica (Foxtail Millet), which has larger spikelets about 3 mm long and usually smooth, shiny upper lemmas. Foxtail Millet was cultivated in China by 2700 BC and during the Stone Age in Europe. Setaria viridis has been proposed as a model to study C4 photosynthesis and related bioenergy grasses. It has a short life cycle (6–8 weeks), is transformable and is currently being sequenced. Genetic resources are currently being developed by a number of groups. A method to break the prolonged seed dormancy has been discovered recently and all these could contribute towards making S. viridis a choice monocot genetic model system.

Notes

There are about 130 Setaria species. They are mainly in the tropics and subtropics. It is a widespread weedy plant.

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