Setaria palmifolia
Environmental Weed (2024)
Common names
palm grass
Biostatus
Exotic
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Grasses
Detailed description
Dense, palm-like grass. Root mass dense with tough rhizomes. Stems rounded. Leaves 30–100 × 5–8 cm, pleated (palm frond-like), tapering to a point, harsh, hanging. Seedheads long, narrow, loose spikes, 20–30 cm long, with fuzzy foxtail-like tips; on long arching stems.
Similar taxa
This is the only grass with palm-like (plicate) leaves.
Habitat
Terrestrial. Disturbed and open forest, shrubland, herbfield, bare land,
Conservation status
Not applicable
Detailed taxonomy
Family
Poaceae
Ecology
Flowering
December–March
Fruiting
December–March
Year naturalised
1981
Origin
India
Reason for introduction
Ornamental
Life cycle
Perennial. Rhizomes and root masses re-sprout. Can also spread via seed. Dumped garden waste, soil and water movement.
Other information
Environmental Weed (2024)
This plant is named in a list of 386 environmental weeds in New Zealand 2024 prepared by DOC. 759 candidate species were considered for inclusion on this new comprehensive list of environmental weeds in New Zealand. The species considered were drawn from published lists of weed species, lists of plants that must be reported or managed by law if observed, existing national and regional programmes and agreements for pest management, and species already managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC). Candidate species were then assessed to see if they were fully naturalised and whether they have more than minor impacts in natural ecosystems. Read the full report here.
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
SETPAL