Common name
Foxtail Millet
Italian Millet

Derivation
Setaria P.Beauv., Ess. Agrostogr. 51 (1812), nom. cons.; from the Latin seta (a bristle), alluding to bristly inflorescences.

italica- from Italia, that is Italy.

Published in
Ess. Agrostogr. 51, 170, 178 (1812).

Habit
Annual. Culms erect or geniculately ascending, robust, 30–150 cm tall, 5–7-noded. Mid-culm nodes glabrous. Leaf-sheaths outer margin hairy. Ligule a fringe of hairs. Leaf-blades flat, 8–45 cm long, 5–20 mm wide, flaccid. Leaf-blade surface scaberulous or scabrous, glabrous. Leaf-blade margins cartilaginous, scaberulous. Leaf-blade apex attenuate.

Inflorescence
Inflorescence solid, a panicle. Peduncle antrorsely scabrous above. Panicle spiciform, linear or oblong, continuous or interrupted, equilateral or nodding, 5–30 cm long, 0.8–2.4 cm wide. Primary panicle branches accrescent to a central axis, with evident branchlets on axis. Panicle axis villous.

Spikelets
Spikelets subtended by an involucre. Involucre composed of bristles, 4–16 mm long. Involucral bristles persistent, 2–5 in principal whorl, flexible, antrorsely scaberulous, glabrous. Fertile spikelets 2-flowered, comprising 1 fertile floret, lower floret sterile, upper fertile, without rhachilla extension, elliptic, dorsally compressed, 2–3 mm long, persistent on plant.

Glumes
Glumes thinner than fertile lemma. Lower glume ovate, 0.8–1.5 mm long, 33% of length of spikelet, hyaline or membranous, 1–3-nerved. Lower glume apex acute. Upper glume elliptic, 2.1–2.8 mm long, 66–75% of length of spikelet, membranous, 5–7-nerved. Upper glume apex obtuse or acute.

Florets
Basal sterile floret 1, without significant palea. Lemma of lower sterile floret elliptic, 2.4–3 mm long, 100% of length of spikelet, membranous, 5-nerved, with nerves free at apex, hairy, obtuse or acute. Fertile lemma elliptic or oblong, dorsally compressed, gibbous, 2–3 mm long, indurate, yellow. Lemma surface unwrinkled or rugulose or rugose. Lemma margins involute. Lemma apex mucronate. Palea involute, indurate. Anthers 3, 1 mm long. Grain with adherent pericarp, ellipsoid or orbicular, dorsally compressed, 1.5–2 mm long. Hilum punctiform.

Continental Distribution:
Europe, Africa, Temperate Asia, Tropical Asia, Australasia, Pacific, North America, South America.

Australian Distribution:
Western Australia, Northern Territory, South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania.

Western Australia: Gardner, Fortescue, Drummond, Dale, Menzies, Avon. Northern Territory: Central Australia South. South Australia: North-western, Gairdner-Torrens Basin, Flinders Ranges, Eastern, Northern Lofty, Murray, Southern Lofty, South-eastern. Queensland: Cook, Leichhardt, Wide Bay, Darling Downs, Moreton. New South Wales: Central Coast, Northern Tablelands, Central Tablelands, Southern Tablelands, North-Western Slopes, South-Western Slopes, North-Western Plains, South-Western Plains, North Far Western Plains, South Far Western Plains. Victoria: Riverina, Midlands, Victorian Volcanic Plain, Gippsland Plains. Tasmania: Midlands, East Coast.

Classification. (GPWG 2001):
Panicoideae: Paniceae

Notes
Introduced. Flowers mostly Jan.–May. The point of disarticulation (below the glumes in Setaria viridis and above in Setaria italica) is used to separate the species.