Setaria

We often use FOTW to highlight some of the lesser-sung heroes of your favourite seasonal bouquets, and this week’s pick is no exception. We present to you the setaria!

Yep, it’s grass.

Now, the editorial sections of the more low-brow online flower marketplaces out there might kick off with a few entendre-like references to a different type of grass, but don’t worry we know our readership and how long ago you left behind that poster of E.T. smoking a massive joint beneath the immortal words, ‘Take Me To Your Dealer.’ Even the A Bout De Souffle poster that you blu-tacked over it has probably been replaced by now, by a (framed!) print from whatever artist happened to be having a retrospective at the RA the same month you moved into your East London new-build flat.

So instead we’ll focus on the more tangible qualities of the setaria genus of grass. It’s the type that generally features delicious-to-the-touch foxtail-shaped plumage. You know the type I’m talking about, don’t you? Right now I bet you’re imagining the sensation of running your hand across its soft bristles (seta is latin for ‘bristle’, fact fans). You’re instantly transported - perhaps you’re a kid running through the long grasses outside your granny’s cottage, leaving lollypop-sticky fingerprints across the garden. Maybe you’re back to your student years: whiling away long, languorous, late summer days amidst the relative wilderness of an untamed section of park, ‘life-changing’ literature cast aside while you soak in the sunshine and nature around you…

Because that’s one of the best things about true wild and seasonal flowers, right? So many of them inspire that most unexpected of nostalgic reactions. We are so accustomed to seeing certain plants and flowers that sometimes it takes the jolt of a beautifully arranged bouquet to remind you what a special place they hold in the world. Even humble grass can do it!