Setaria adhaerens(Forssk.) Chiov.

bur bristlegrass

WFO wfo-0000898969 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Setaria adhaerens, photographed by Kevin Faccenda
fig. a Kevin Faccenda, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-31 / obs. 204005258
Setaria adhaerens, photographed by Kevin Faccenda
fig. b Kevin Faccenda, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 197732234
Setaria adhaerens, photographed by Kevin Faccenda
fig. c Kevin Faccenda, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 183223931
Setaria adhaerens, photographed by Christian Berg
fig. d Christian Berg, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 173759897
Setaria adhaerens, photographed by Juan Carlos Fonseca Mata
fig. e Juan Carlos Fonseca Mata, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 159031263
Setaria adhaerens, photographed by Kevin Faccenda
fig. f Kevin Faccenda, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 125096899
Setaria adhaerens, photographed by Eleftherios Katsillis
fig. g Eleftherios Katsillis, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 109932388
Setaria adhaerens, photographed by M. Socorro González Elizondo
fig. h M. Socorro González Elizondo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 94859367

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 32 botanical countries

Regions where Setaria adhaerens is native: Botswana, Burkina, Cameroon, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Libya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Senegal, Somalia, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Cyprus, Palestine, Türkiye, Yemen, India, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Corse, Spain BotswanaBurkinaCameroonEritreaEthiopiaGambiaGhanaKenyaLibyaMalawiMaliMauritaniaMozambiqueNigerSenegalSomaliaTanzaniaTunisiaUgandaZambiaZimbabweCyprusPalestineTürkiyeYemenIndiaPakistanPhilippinesSri LankaThailandCorseSpain
Native distribution of Setaria adhaerens, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Botswana BOT AFRICA
Burkina BKN
Cameroon CMN
Eritrea ERI
Ethiopia ETH
Gambia GAM
Ghana GHA
Kenya KEN
Libya LBY
Malawi MLW
Mali MLI
Mauritania MTN
Mozambique MOZ
Niger NGR
Senegal SEN
Somalia SOM
Tanzania TAN
Tunisia TUN
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
India IND ASIA-TROPICAL
Pakistan PAK
Philippines PHI
Sri Lanka SRL
Thailand THA
Cyprus CYP ASIA-TEMPERATE
Palestine PAL
Türkiye TUR
Yemen YEM
Corse COR EUROPE
Spain SPA

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 337 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 3.7 °C 13.7 °C 21.5 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 22.6 °C 26.9 °C 35.2 °C
Annual rainfall 199 mm 651 mm 1,268 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 2 mm 29 mm 170 mm

It is found where winters are cool but frost is light or absent. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 337 research-grade observations of Setaria adhaerens that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 23 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Chaetochloa brevispica Scribn. & Merr.
  • Chamaeraphis italica var. aparine (Steud.) Kuntze
  • Chamaeraphis italica var. rottleri (Spreng.) Kuntze
  • Panicum adhaerens Forssk.
  • Panicum adhaerens f. antrorsum A.Braun
  • Panicum aparine Steud.
  • Panicum rottleri (Spreng.) Nees
  • Panicum verticillatum subsp. rottleri (Spreng.) Duval-Jouve
  • Panicum verticillatum var. aparine (Steud.) Asch. & Schweinf.
  • Panicum verticillatum var. parviflorum Döll
  • Pennisetum respiciens A.Rich.
  • Setaria adhaerens var. font-queri Calduch
  • Setaria aparine (Steud.) Chiov.
  • Setaria brevispica (Scribn. & Merr.) K.Schum.
  • Setaria depauperata Phil.
  • Setaria italica var. aparine (Steud.) Kuntze
  • Setaria respiciens (A.Rich.) Walp.
  • Setaria rottleri Spreng.
  • Setaria verticillata subsp. adhaerens (Forssk.) Jauzein
  • Setaria verticillata subsp. aparine (Steud.) T.Durand & Schinz
  • Setaria verticillata var. aparine (Steud.) Asch. & Graebn.
  • Setaria verticillata var. font-queri (Calduch) O.Bolòs & Vigo
  • Setaria verticillata var. respiciens (A.Rich.) A.Braun

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.