Setaria faberi (Giant foxtail)

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Setaria faberi Herrm.

Giant foxtail

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	faberi	After Ernst Faber (1839-1899), a German missionary, writer on Confucius and plant collector in China, author of An Introduction to Chinese Religious Studies and German Daoism and Historical Nature of Daoism

About plant names...

Giant foxtail is not native to North America, but it is now widespread. In some states it is considered an invasive species because it competes with several crops.

Identification: Plants are 24-60" (60-152 cm) tall, with multiple stems. The grass blades alternate, reaching up to 15" (38 cm) long and ¾" (1.9 cm) wide. They are 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. Stem tops have a panicle—the "foxtail"—up to 7" (17 cm) long. Bristly and usually somewhat bent under its own weight, the flowerheads begin green, becoming light brown over time.

9/19/2013 · Harvard, Massachusetts
≈ 8 × 6" (20 × 14 cm)

9/19/2013 · Harvard, Massachusetts
≈ 6 × 5" (15 × 12 cm)

Here are the foxtails:

	You are here Setaria faberi	*Setaria pumila*	*Setaria viridis*
Common Name	giant foxtail	yellow foxtail	green foxtail
Plant	Plants are 24-60" (60-152 cm) tall, the *largest* foxtails, with multiple stems. The grass blades alternate, reaching up to 15" (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 16" (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