24 FARM WEEDS OF CANADA 



GREEN FOXTAIL (Setaria viridis (L.) Beauv.) 

 Other English names: Pigeon Grass, Bottle Grass. 



Other Latin names: Panicum viride L.; Chamaeraphis viridis 

 Porter; Ixophorus viridis Nash; Chaetochloa viridis Scribn. 



Introduced from Europe. Annual, tufted, stems erect, 

 simple or branched from the base, leafy. The part of the leaf 

 embracing the stem is smooth and hairless, while the margins of the 

 extended portion are generally rough. Panicle thick, spike- 

 like, its central axis bearing long soft hairs. Spikelet single- 

 flowered, or with one perfect and one barren flower. From 1 to 

 3 persistent green bristles, upwardly barbed, inserted on the 

 short footstalks just below the florets. 



The seed (Plate 72, fig. 2) is generally found enclosed in 

 a tough hard husk, 1 /12 of an inch long, oval, with the outer 

 scale rounded and folded over the polished rounded edges of 

 the inner scale, which is flattened in the middle. Both scales 

 of the husk are roughened crosswise with narrow ridges. The 

 colour is very variable according to the degree of ripeness; yellow, 

 gray, brown or purplish, the darker seeds mottled with darker 

 spots. The kernel is greenish white, convex on the outer face, 

 which bears the germ, and flattened on the inner face. 



Time of flowering: June to September; seeds ripe by July. 



Propagation : By seeds. 



Occurrence: Abundant in eastern Canada; occasional in 

 the West. The seeds are a common impurity in red clover seed. 



Injury: A troublesome persistent weed in all crops on land 

 not worked under a short crop rotation with clean cultivation. 

 It seeds profusely from harvest to late autumn in cereal stubble 

 lands, hoed crops, new meadows and clover seed crops. The 

 presence of this seed as an impurity materially reduces the 

 value of red clover seed for commerce. 



Remedy: Thick seeding with clovers and grasses will help 

 to suppress Foxtail in the autumh stubble and subsequent clover 

 crop. In clover seed crops, the patches that have been winter- 

 killed should be mown while the Foxtail is still quite green. 



