Practical
Plants

Setaria pumila

Yellow Bristle Grass

an annual member of the Setaria genus in the family Gramineae.

No photo available

Taxonomy and growth

Family
Gramineae
Genus
Setaria
Life cycle
annual
Height
0.75 m
Fertility
Wind
Flower type
hermaphrodite
Pollinators
Wind

Uses

Edible uses

This section contains historical Plants For A Future notes marked noncommercial.

Seed - cooked[1][3]. 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[5]. The seed contains about 11.5% protein, 6% fat, 40.7% carbohydrate, 8.2% fat[4]. A dust from the fungal infection of plants is eaten[6][2].

Plant part
Seed

Environment

Range
A cosmopolitan plant.
Habitat
Waste ground, cultivated fields and lowland all over Japan[8].
Light
full sun
Shade tolerance
no shade
Water
moderate
Hardiness
Zone 6+
Soil textures
sandy, loamy, clay
Soil pH
acid, neutral, alkaline
Drainage
well drained
Tolerances
drought
Tolerates Nutritionally Poor Soil
No
Drought
tolerant

Propagation

This section contains historical Plants For A Future notes marked noncommercial.

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.

Cultivation

This section contains historical Plants For A Future notes marked noncommercial.

Succeeds in any well-drained soil in full sun[7].

References

  1. Tanaka. T. Tanaka's Cyclopaedia of Edible Plants of the World. Keigaku Publishing 1976-00-00

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  2. Schofield. J. J. Discovering Wild Plants - Alaska, W. Canada and the Northwest.

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  3. Kunkel. G. Plants for Human Consumption. Koeltz Scientific Books 1984-00-00 ISBN 3874292169

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  4. Reid. B. E. Famine Foods of the Chiu-Huang Pen-ts'ao. Taipei. Southern Materials Centre 1977-00-00

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  5. Facciola. S. Cornucopia - A Source Book of Edible Plants. Kampong Publications 1990-00-00 ISBN 0-9628087-0-9

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  6. Hedrick. U. P. Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World. Dover Publications 1972-00-00 ISBN 0-486-20459-6

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  7. Huxley. A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. MacMillan Press 1992-00-00 ISBN 0-333-47494-5

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  8. Ohwi. G. Flora of Japan. (English translation) Smithsonian Institution 1965-00-00

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