The Last Grass

Common yellow foxtail tries for glamour.

With a jazzy name like Setaria pumila you expect big things. The botanical references describe parts like panicles, florets, glumes, and spikelets, but really this is just plain old grass. It’s everywhere - from a public walking path in DC to a gated neighborhood in LA. Yellow foxtail, aka yellow bristlegrass, is about as ordinary as you can get.

“Get close to grass, and you'll see a star."

Dejan Stojanovic

But look again. I think of slender caterpillars wrapped in boas of translucent golden threads just about to leap from the stem and fly upward. While all the other grasses are bending over slowly getting ready for a long winter’s nap* these are looking up – glimmering brightly in the afternoon sun and hoping to be asked to dance.

*I captured this in the very last moments before the snows came and, although the season has moved on, I think these pretty foxtails deserve their rightful place in the ongoing story.

Things will be a bit frostier from here on.