''Setaria faberi'', the Japanese bristlegrass, nodding bristle-grass,
Chinese foxtail, Chinese millet, giant bristlegrass, giant foxtail or nodding foxtail, is an
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...
n
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 lawns a ...
. It is a summer annual, with plants emerging from seeds in the spring, and setting seeds in the late summer or fall.
Giant foxtails prefer compacted soils, high in nitrogen and phosphorus. The plant gains a competitive edge on
crop
A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydropon ...
s as the
soil pH increases.
As a weed
Giant foxtail has been introduced to
North America, where it is a widespread
weed
A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, "a plant in the wrong place", or a plant growing where it is not wanted.Harlan, J. R., & deWet, J. M. (1965). Some thoughts about weeds. ''Economic botany'', ''19''(1), 16-24. ...
. It is a significant pest of
maize/corn, reducing crop yields by 13–14% at average plant distributions. Mechanical control of giant foxtails by night tillage, rotary hoeing, or flaming is very difficult. Crop rotation with two years of
alfalfa effectively reduces giant foxtail populations. Herbicides can effectively control the plant when it is growing amongst
broadleaf crops, but are less effective when it is infesting maize/corn because they are both
Poaceae.
[A. Davis, K. Renner, C. Sprague, L. Dyer, D. Mutch (2005). Integrated Weed Management. MSU.]
References
External links
Jepson Manual TreatmentPhoto gallery
faberi
{{Panicoideae-stub