Common Name: Yellow Bristle Grass

General Information

Setaria pumila is an annual, clump-forming erect grass usually growing from 25 - 60 cm tall, though it can range from 5 - 130cm.
The edible seed is sometimes gathered from the wild and used locally.
Setaria pumila has become a weed in many areas of the world, where it infests dryland crops, roadsides, waste areas, ditches and occasionally grasslands[].

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

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Range

A cosmopolitan plant, originally from temperate and subtropical Asia and Europe.

Habitat

Waste ground, cultivated fields and lowland all over Japan[].

Properties

Weed Potential	Yes
Edibility Rating
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Annual
Height	0.75 m
Pollinators	Wind
Cultivation Status	Wild

Cultivation Details

A world-wide weed, found from the temperate zone to the tropics. In the tropics, it is found in areas where the mean annual rainfall is 500mm or more[].
Succeeds in any well-drained soil in full sun[]. The plant is especially well suited to dry soil conditions[].
The plant photosynthesizes by a more efficient method than most plants. Called the 'C4 carbon-fixation pathway', this process is particularly efficient at high temperatures, in bright sunlight and under dry conditions[].

Edible Uses

Seed - cooked[, ]. It can be eaten as a sweet or savoury food in all the ways that rice is used, or ground into a powder and made into porridge, cakes, puddings etc[]. The seed contains about 11.5% protein, 6% fat, 40.7% carbohydrate, 8.2% fat[].

A dust from the fungal infection of plants is eaten[, ].

Medicinal

None known

Agroforestry Uses:

In some areas this grass plays an important role in stabilising bare soil to protect it from erosion[].

Other Uses

The culms are twisted together and used as a rope to tie sheaves of grain together[].

Propagation

Seed - sow early spring in a greenhouse and only just cover the seed. Germination is usually quick and good. Prick out the seedlings into individual pots as soon as they are large enough to handle and grow them on fast. Plant them out in late spring, after the last expected frosts. Whilst this is fine for small quantities, it would be an extremely labour intensive method if larger amounts were to be grown.
The seed can be sown in situ in the middle of spring though it is then later in coming into flower and may not ripen its seed in a cool summer.