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A foxtail is a
A foxtail is a spikelet
A spikelet, in botany, describes the typical arrangement of the flowers of grasses, sedges and some other Monocots.
Each spikelet has one or more florets. The spikelets are further grouped into panicles or spikes. The part of the spikelet tha ...
or cluster of a grass
Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in law ...
, that serves to disperse its seeds as a unit. Thus, the foxtail is a type of diaspore or plant dispersal unit. Some grasses that produce a foxtail are themselves called "foxtail", also "spear grass Spear grass or speargrass is the common name of numerous herbaceous plants worldwide including:
Poaceae (grasses)
*''Aristida'' spp.
*''Heteropogon contortus''
*''Imperata cylindrica''
*''Piptochaetium''
*''Poa'' spp.
*''Stipa'' spp.; typically ''S ...
". They can become a health hazard for dogs and other domestic animals, and a nuisance for people.
Sources
The name "foxtail" is applied to a number of grasses that have bushyspikes
The SPIKES protocol is a method used in clinical medicine to break bad news to patients and families. As receiving bad news can cause distress and anxiety, clinicians need to deliver the news carefully. By using the SPIKES method for introducing a ...
of spikelets that resemble the tail of a fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelv ...
. Not all of these are hazardous; most of the hazardous ones are in the genus ''Hordeum
''Hordeum'' is a genus of annual and perennial plants in the grass family. They are native throughout the temperate regions of Africa, Eurasia, and the Americas.
One species, ''Hordeum vulgare'' ( barley), has become of major commercial import ...
'', and are also called "wild barley".
Grasses known as foxtails include:
* '' Alopecurus'' (foxtail grasses – the scientific name literally means "fox tail")
* '' Bromus madritensis''