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Setaria italica

Common name:	Foxtail Millet	Family:	Gramineae
Author:	(L.)P.Beauv.	Botanical references:	17, 74, 200
Synonyms:
Known Hazards:	None known
Range:	Asia? The origin is obscure, the plant is a casual in Britain[17].
Habitat:	Not known in a truly wild situation.
Edibility Rating (1-5):	3	Medicinal Rating (1-5):	2

Other Possible Synonyms:	From various places across the web, may not be correct. See below.
	Chaetochloa italica[B,G,P] Metzgeri[B] Panicum flavum[G] Panicum italicum[B,G,P] S. italica var. metzeri[P] S. italica var. metzgeri[B] S. italica var. stramineofructa[B,P]
Other Common Names:	From various places around the Web, may not be correct. See below.
	Ch'Ing Liang Mi [E], Foxtail Bristlegrass [P], Foxtail Millet [H,L], German Millet [L], Golden Thumb Millet [H], Hsiao Mi [E], Huang Liang Mi [E], Hungarian Grass [L], Italian Bristle Grass [B], Italian Millet [L], Ku Tzu [E], Liang [E], Millet [L], Pai Liang Mi [E], Shu [E], Trosgierst [D],
Epithets:	From a Dictionary of Botanical Epithets
	italica = Italian
Systematics:	From a USDA Plants Database
	Order: Cyperales. Renamed to Poaceae -- Grass family
Other Range Info:	From the Ethnobotany Database
	China
Noxious, Invasive and Injurious Weeds	From USDA PLANTS database, Weeds Australia , DEFRA Injurious Weeds
	Listed as noxious/invasive for: USA Invasive.

Physical Characteristics

Annual growing to 0.45m by 0.1m . It is hardy to zone 6. It is in flower from August to October, and the seeds ripen from September to October. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Wind. We rate it 3/5 for edibility and 2/5 for medicinal use.

The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils and requires well-drained soil. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It cannot grow in the shade. It requires moist soil and can tolerate drought.

Habitats and Possible Locations

Cultivated Beds.

Edible Uses

Seed.

Seed - cooked[2, 34, 46]. It can be eaten as a sweet or savoury food in all the ways that rice is used, or ground into a flour and made into porridge, cakes, puddings etc[105, 183]. The seed can also be sprouted before it is used, when it will become somewhat sweeter[K]. A nutritional analysis is available[218].

Composition

Seed (Dry weight): In grammes per 100g weight of food:
Water: 0 Calories: 384 Protein: 10.7 Fat: 3.3 Carbohydrate: 84.2 Fibre: 1.4 Ash: 1.8
In milligrammes per 100g weight of food:
Calcium: 37 Phosphorus: 275 Iron: 6.2 Sodium: 8 Potassium: 281 VitaminA: 0 Thiamine: 0.48 Riboflavin: 0.14 Niacin: 2.48 VitaminC: 0
Source: [218]

Medicinal Uses

Disclaimer

Appetizer Astringent Digestive Diuretic Emollient Refrigerant Stomachic.

The germinated seed of yellow-seeded cultivars is astringent, digestive, emollient and stomachic[176, 178, 218]. It is used in the treatment of dyspepsia, poor digestion and food stagnancy in the abdomen[176]. White seeds are refrigerant and used in the treatment of cholera and fever[218]. Green seeds are diuretic and strengthening to virility[218].

Other Uses

None known

Cultivation details

Succeeds in any well-drained soil in full sun[162]. Established plants are very drought resistant[57, 61].
Often cultivated for its edible seed in tropical and warm temperate areas, there are many named varieties[183]. Because the plant flowers in late summer there are problems with harvesting a good crop of seed in Britain. Apart from that, the plant grows well here.

Propagation

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.

Cultivars

'': No entries have been made for this species as yet.

Suppliers

For more details of plant suppliers please see our Suppliers Page which lists many more places to look.

Web References

[H] Details of Scandanavian and European Common names in Henriette's names database
[E] Ethnobotany Data (common names, uses, countries) from the Ethnobotany Database.
[V] Images from the Vascular Plant Image Gallery of the Texas A& M Bioinformatics Working Group.
[B] Data (Latin & Common names, other references) from the BONAP's Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
[FAO] Data (Description, Habitat, Location and Use) from the FAO's Grassland Index.
[G] Data (Common Names, Uses, Distribution) from the USDA/ARS NPGS's GRIN taxonomic database.
[P] Data. (uses, distribution, wetland) from the USDA'a Plants database.
[HP] Links, Photos, Suppliers from Hortiplex Plant Database

See the PFAF Links Pages for other sources.

Also try Photos and info from the The Plants Database which has 14,000 images.

References

[K] Ken Fern
Notes from observations, tasting etc at Plants For A Future and on field trips.

[2] Hedrick. U. P. Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World. Dover Publications 1972 ISBN 0-486-20459-6
Lots of entries, quite a lot of information in most entries and references.

[17] Clapham, Tootin and Warburg. Flora of the British Isles. Cambridge University Press 1962
A very comprehensive flora, the standard reference book but it has no pictures.

[34] Harrison. S. Wallis. M. Masefield. G. The Oxford Book of Food Plants. Oxford University Press 1975
Good drawings of some of the more common food plants from around the world. Not much information though.

[46] Uphof. J. C. Th. Dictionary of Economic Plants. Weinheim 1959
An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.

[57] Schery. R. W. Plants for Man.
Fairly readable but not very comprehensive. Deals with plants from around the world.

[61] Usher. G. A Dictionary of Plants Used by Man. Constable 1974 ISBN 0094579202
Forget the sexist title, this is one of the best books on the subject. Lists a very extensive range of useful plants from around the world with very brief details of the uses. Not for the casual reader.

[74] Komarov. V. L. Flora of the USSR. Israel Program for Scientific Translation 1968
An immense (25 or more large volumes) and not yet completed translation of the Russian flora. Full of information on plant uses and habitats but heavy going for casual readers.

[105] Tanaka. T. Tanaka's Cyclopaedia of Edible Plants of the World. Keigaku Publishing 1976
The most comprehensive guide to edible plants I've come across. Only the briefest entry for each species, though, and some of the entries are more than a little dubious. Not for the casual reader.

[162] Grounds. R. Ornamental Grasses. Christopher Helm 1989 ISBN 0-7470-1219-9
Cultivation details of many of the grasses and bamboos. Well illustrated.

[176] Yeung. Him-Che. Handbook of Chinese Herbs and Formulas. Institute of Chinese Medicine, Los Angeles 1985
A very good Chinese herbal.

[178] Stuart. Rev. G. A. Chinese Materia Medica. Taipei. Southern Materials Centre
A translation of an ancient Chinese herbal. Fascinating.

[183] Facciola. S. Cornucopia - A Source Book of Edible Plants. Kampong Publications 1990 ISBN 0-9628087-0-9
Excellent. Contains a very wide range of conventional and unconventional food plants (including tropical) and where they can be obtained (mainly N. American nurseries but also research institutes and a lot of other nurseries from around the world.

[200] Huxley. A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. MacMillan Press 1992 ISBN 0-333-47494-5
Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.

[218] Duke. J. A. and Ayensu. E. S. Medicinal Plants of China Reference Publications, Inc. 1985 ISBN 0-917256-20-4
Details of over 1,200 medicinal plants of China and brief details of their uses. Often includes an analysis, or at least a list of constituents. Heavy going if you are not into the subject.

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Plant information taken from the Plants For A Future - Species Database. Copyright (c) 1997-2003.
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