Setaria Italica

Setaria is a large genus in the Gramineae family consisting of domestic and wild species, both of which are harvested for grain. De Wet et al. ² recently summarized the origins and evolutions of foxtail millets. Malm and Rachie ³ reviewed world literature earlier. Currently, foxtail millet (Setaria italica [L.] Beauv.) is generally considered a minor or relict crop but it was a staple in early agriculture. ² - ⁴ Williams ⁵ and Werth ⁶ consider China or Central Asia to be the center of cultivated varieties. Foxtail millet was moved from China to Japan ⁷ and occurs in the wild state there. ⁵ Green foxtail, S. viridis, is wild foxtail millet and is recognized as a subspecies of S. italica. ² S. viride grades morphologically into cultivated S. italica and the two cross to produce fertile hybrids.” The subspecies S. italica subsp. viridis (L.) is a weedy annual native to temperate Eurasia ² introduced to temperate areas all over the world. De Wet et al. ² consider it unlikely that S. italica was domesticated in the Loes highlands of China and transported to Europe or vice versa. Possibly the species was domesticated in more than one area simultaneously or at different times. ^{9 , 10} Domestication dates nearly to 5000 B.C. in Shenshi, China. ^{11 , 11a Setaria was the most important food in the Neolithic culture in China. 12 Foxtail millet provided 17% of the total food consumed in China as recently as 1949 13 and remains important today on poor agricultural lands. 2 It was cultivated in Russia about 1500 years ago. 3 The review of De Wet et al. 2 refers to Setaria species (domestic and wild) used for grain in Australia, the Philippines, New Guinea, Mexico, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Afghanistan.}