Virginia Wildrye Evaluated as a Potential Native Cool‐Season Forage in the Northeast USA

Abstract

rye (E. glaucus Buckley), and Dahurian wildrye (E. dahuricus Turcz ex Greiseb) as the most noteworthy of the Most forage grasses grown in the northeastern USA are introduced Elymus wildryes and briefly mentioned Virginia wildrye species. Interest in native plant species for conservation and producfor revegetating prairie (Asay and Jensen, 1996). Virtion has increased because of new federal policies. We evaluated ginia wildrye is closely related to Canada wildrye. Both northeastern accessions of the native cool-season grass Virginia wildrye (Elymus virginicus L.) for yield, persistence, and plant morpholog-species are highly self-fertile allotetraploids (2n ϭ 28) ical traits. Thirteen accessions, one cultivar (Omaha), and one comwith the SSHH genome constitution (Asay and Jensen, mercial ecotype of Elymus were transplanted into single-row field plots 1996). Very little breeding has been done in either spein late summer of 2000 at Beltsville, MD, Rock Springs, PA, and Big cies. In an evaluation of 30 grass species in Saskatche-Flats, NY. Two orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.) cultivars were wan, Canada, E. virginicus was considered a promising the checks. Yield and morphology (leaf width, length, mass, area, and forage grass, but lack of winterhardiness limited its pertillers per plant) data were collected during 2001 and 2002. The Elymus sistence (Lawrence, 1978). Hereafter in this paper, the accessions produced as much dry matter (28-57 g per plant) as the terms "Elymus" and "wildrye" will refer to E. virginicus. cultivar and commercial ecotype. Orchardgrass yielded more than twice Leaf and tiller development are key determinants in the as much dry matter than the mean of all Elymus entries (94 vs. 34 g growth, yield, and persistence of the grass sward (Rhodes, per plant averaged for years and locations). The difference in productivity was related to reduced tillering in Elymus especially during re-1969, 1971, 1975; Nelson et al., 1977). For example, plants growth. Yield per plant was strongly correlated (r ϭ 0.62-0.81, P Ͻ of a tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) genotype 0.01) with the number of tillers per plant. Differences in productivity with high yield per tiller had long erect leaves and a were also reflected in leaf blade traits, with Elymus having a lower reduced tillering rate, which made for an open sward. leaf area and mass than orchardgrass. Leaf traits were positively corre-Plants of a genotype with low yield per tiller had shorter, lated (r ϭ 0.35-0.56, P Ͻ 0.05) with plant yield. Some northeastern lax leaves and a high tillering rate (Zarrough et al., Elymus accessions would probably perform as well as the commercial 1983a,b). In perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.), sources of Elymus in conservation plantings. The experiment was conducted at the USDA-NRCS Plant cock, 1971). It is recommended as a component in some Materials Center in Big Flats, NY (42ЊN, 76Њ54Ј W, 290 m asl), the Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center at Rock conservation plantings for revegetation. A recent re...

Virginia Wildrye Persistence and Performance in Riparian Areas

“…The 9085141 population collected from plants in Pennsylvania (9085141P) had poorer survival than the commercial cultivar or ecotype ( Table 2). The average survivorship of the populations (71%) was similar to the survivorship of the two accessions in the 3-yr forage trial (74%; Sanderson et al, 2004a). Survival of the checks, however, seemed to be poorer in the forage trial (56%) than in the current study (81%).…”

“…4). The rankings for dry matter yield, tillers per plant, and survival of the two accessions observed in the current study were the same in the forage evaluation trial (Sanderson et al, 2004a). The average number of tillers per plant in the forage trial was 78 tillers for 9085141, 106 for 9051786, 78 for Omaha, and 66 for the PA ecotype.…”

“…Dry matter yield and tiller numbers of the populations and checks were 50 to 60% less in the current study than when the plants were evaluated under 17.5 † Data are least squares means of four replicates, three landscape positions, and three sites. The letter following the original accession number refers to the site from which surviving individuals were collected from a previous study (Sanderson et al, 2004a) in 2004 to make up the population. M, Beltsville, MD; N, Big Flats, NY; P, Rock Springs, PA. Tiller and dry weight data were square root transformed for analysis.…”

“…We generated six populations of Virginia wildrye by collecting surviving plants from two USDA-NRCS accessions grown in forage plot studies at Big Flats, NY, Rock Springs, PA, and Beltsville, MD, during 2000 to 2002 (Sanderson et al, 2004a). The group of surviving plants (genotypes) of each accession from each location was considered a population.…”

“…The two accessions were #9085141 [originally collected in Montgomery County, MD, (PAR 232-7) in 1998] and #9051786 [originally collected in Chemung County, NY, (PAR 212-5) by USDA-NRCS plant materials specialists in 1999]. These were among the most persistent and vigorous accessions evaluated at the three locations (Sanderson et al, 2004a). We dug up the surviving plants for each population in May 2003 and propagated them in the greenhouse.…”