Setaria geniculata (Lam.).
Knotroot Bristlegrass

Habit: 		Perennial, producing short knotty branching rhizomes as much as 4 cm. long, resembling
		Setaria lutescens.
Culms: 		30-80 cm. tall, often tufted, slender, wiry.
Blades: 	Erect, 15 cm. long or less, 5-7 mm. wide or less, mainly straight (not twisted),
		long acuminate, glabrous.
Sheaths: 	Shorter than the internodes, flattened, keeled, glabrous.
Ligule: 	Membranous, short, ciliate.
Inflorescence: 	A dense terminal cylindric spikelike panicle, 3-5 cm. long, 1 cm. thick, green,
		yellowish or purple, the axis densely pubescent, with about 6 bristles below each
		spikelet, sometimes many more, as long as to several times the length of spikelet,
		usually 2-3- times as long, upwardly barbed.
Spikelets: 	2-2.5 to 3 mm. long, plano-convex, ovoid.
Glumes: 	First about one third as long as the spikelet, 3-nerved, second about two thirds
		as long, 5-nerved.  Sterile lemma frequently longer than the second glume,
		5-7-nerved, empty, or rarely enclosing a palea and also sometimes a staminate flower.
Fertile lemmas:	Leathery-indurate, enclosing a shorter palea, strongly transversely rugose.
Fruit: 		Subacute, about qual to the sterile lemma, finely transversely-undulate, rugose.
Habitat: 	Meadows, salt marshes, and cultivated ground.  July-September.
Kansas Range:	Scattered in south two thirds.
Synonyms:	Setaria geniculata auct. non (Wild.) Beauv.
		Setaria gracilis Kunth