Gramineae

Setaria phillipsii De Wet

Bergsetaria, Mountain bristle grass

Panicoideae; Panicodae, Paniceae

There are about 110 species of Setaria from tropical and warm temperate regions of the world of which 19 species are indigenous to southern Africa. Setaria lindenbergiana occurs from tropical to southern Africa. In South Africa it is found in the Fynbos, Savanna and Grassland Biomes.

A densely tufted perennial grass with short, creeping rhizomes that grows to a height of 300-1,200 mm tall. Culm nodes are glabrous. The leaf blades are blue-green in colour, linear, finely plicate, flat or inrolled, 100-450 mm long and 1.5-7.0 mm wide. The ligule is a fringed membrane or a fringe of hairs. The lower leaf sheaths are pressed slightly flat. The inflorescence is an open or loosely contracted panicle. Spikelet axes ending in bristles beyond the spikelet that are solitary in this species. The spikelets are in pairs, not in distinct long-and-short combinations, 2.0-3.5 mm long. Spikelet-bearing axes persistent. Spikelets with involucre of bristles. The female-fertile spikelets are dorsiventrally compressed, falling with the glumes. Lemmas are firmer than the glumes, firmer than the glumes, rugose, hairless, have the margins tucked into the palea, are 1-5 nerved and are awnless and apiculate. There are two relatively large, membranous, awnless glumes.
Setaria lindenbergiana intergrades into S. plicatilis, which is loosely tufted, has narrowly lanceolate, coarsely plicate leaf blades and smooth to obscurely rugose upper lemmas.

A relatively palatable grass that makes good hay. The seeds were formerly ground in times of severe famine to be used to make bread. Due to its dense tussock habit and blue-green colour, it makes a good ornamental garden grass.

Chromosome base number, x = 9 and 10.

C₄ photosynthetic pathway.

None reported and considered to be non-toxic.

S. lindenbergiana grows on rocky ridges between rocks and often under the shade of trees or shrubs, where it may form dominant stands. In many parts of its range it is mainly a forest species. It grows in areas where the rainfall is from 500-800 mm per annum. It is drought-resistant, but not frost-resistant.

Usually found between rocks in shallow soil.

Setaria lindenbergiana has been cultivated in the past as a pasture crop as well as for the production of grain to make bread, and it has also been suggested that it would make a suitable horticultural subject. However, little is known about its propagation.

Summer growing species that flowers from October to May.

None known.

Moderate to slow-growing.

Acocks, J.P.H. 1988. Veld types of South Africa (3rd edn.). Mem. Bot. Surv. S. Afr. No 28. Government printer, Pretoria.

Fox, F.W. & Norwood Young, M.E. 1982. Food from the veld: edible wild plants of southern Africa. Delta Books, Johannesburg.

Gibbs-Russell, G.E., Watson, L., Koekemoer, M., Smook, L. Barker, N.P., Anderson, H.M., Dallwitz, M.J. 1989. Grasses of southern Africa. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa, No. 58, National Botanical Institute, Pretoria.

Van Wyk, E. & Van Oudtshoorn, F. 1999. Guide to grasses of southern Africa. Briza Publications, Arcadia, South Africa.