Index / Search / Setaria italica

§1 Plant

Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauv.

vernacular foxtail millet — species · Poaceae

USDA: SEIT
GBIF: 5289698
Rank: species

foxtail millet (Setaria italica) — Platephotograph · eugenezakharovCC BY-NC source · iNaturalist ↗

§2Habit & range

Growth habit: Graminoid
Duration: Annual
Group: Monocot
Family: Poaceae Barnhart
Genus: Setaria

§2a

Native status, by region

CAN Canada Introduced
L48 Lower 48 States Introduced
VI U.S. Virgin Islands Introduced

§2b

County-level range

· 2 counties across 2 states/territories

Legend Native · 0 Introduced · 2 Both · 0 Hover a county for detail.

§3Cultivation specs · USDA

Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.

§3a

Tolerances

Drought: Low
Shade: High
Moisture use: Low
Fire: None
Salinity: Low
Anaerobic: None
CaCO₃: None
Hedging: None

§3b

Climate & soil

Cold tolerance: 52 °F minimum
Frost-free days: 110 min.
Precipitation: 25–60 in/yr
pH range: 5.3–6.9
Root depth: 8 in min.
Fertility need: Low
Soil texture: medium, fine

§3c

Form & growth

Growth form: Bunch
Growth rate: Rapid
Mature height: 5 ft
Foliage texture: Fine
Foliage colour: Green
Porosity (summer): Porous
Porosity (winter): Porous
Flower colour: White
Fruit colour: Brown
Fire resistant: No
N fixation: None
Toxicity: None

§3d

Reproduction

Bloom period: Summer
Seed abundance: High
Seed begins: Fall
Seed ends: Winter
Spread rate: Moderate
Stratify: No
Seeds / lb: 216,600
Propagation: seed

§3e

Use & availability

Commercial availability: Routinely Available
Nursery stock: No
Browse palatability: Medium
Graze palatability: Medium
Palatable, human: No
Protein potential: Low
Lumber: No
Christmas tree: No

§4Counties, by state

Recorded in 2 counties across 2 states/territories.

Montana view state ↗ 1 I ▾

Chouteau 30015

Rhode Island view state ↗ 1 I ▾

Providence 44007

§5Sources & provenance

USDA PLANTS

Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.

plants.usda.gov/SEIT ↗

GBIF Backbone

Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.

gbif.org/species/5289698 ↗

Record version

Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:

usda-plants-mt-2026-05-25

fetched 2026-05-25T18:27:19Z