Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Liliopsida -- monocotyledons

Order: Cyperales

Family: Poaceae -- grass

Subspecies: Two subspecies are commonly recognized locally, ssp. glaucus and ssp. jepsonii. However, Barkworth et al (2002) says "Plants found at elevations of up to 2200 m along the Pacific coast, with hairy leaf blades and lemma awns usually less than 20 mm long, have been called subsp. jepsonii (Burtt Davy) Gould, but Wilson et al. (2001) demonstrated that such plants are neither genetically nor ecologically distinct from those with glabrous leaf blades; they are included here in subsp. glaucus."

Common Name: blue wildrye

Species Code: ELGL

Origin: Native to grasslands, thickets, and open forests in more mesic portions of western North America.

Rare: no

Form: grass, perennial, erect to somewhat decumbent, caespitose, 50-100 cm tall, often glaucous.

Duration: perennial

Longevity: medium lifespan

Habitat Type: forest, prairie, shrub thickets

Wetland Indicator Status: FACU

Leaves: sheaths glabrous or pubescent; auricles to 2.5 mm, purplish; ligules 0.5-1.5 m long, erose ciliate; collar and culm nodes often purple; blades flat, glabrous or scabrous to pilose, 4-13 mm wide, usually lax and drooping.

Mature height: 20-40 inches

Flowers: spikelets mostly 2 per node, overlapping, with 3-6 florets; glumes narrowly lanceolate, about as long as the spikelet (6-12 mm), 3-5 nerved, acuminate to short-awned; florets 3-5; lemmas glabrous to somewhat pubescent, 7-12 mm long, usually with an awn 1-3 cm long.

Flower color: inconspicuous

Anthesis: June

Fruit: caryopsis; disarticulation above the glumes.

Characteristics:
Reproduces sexually by seed.
125,000-155,000 seeds/lb (Hassell et al 1996).
134,500 seeds/lb (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2009).
Wind pollinated.
Flowers are perfect.
Fruit is a caryopsis.
2n=28.
The species is an allotetraploid.
Self compatible and frequently self pollinated (Snyder 1950, Knapp & Rice 1996, Erickson et al 2004).
Hybrids with other species in Elymus are known, including E. elymoides (formerly Sitanion hystrix) and E. trachycaulus (Barkworth et al 2002, Baldwin et al 2004). Crosses with species in Leymus and Hordeum have also been observed (Barkworth et al 2002).
The wide morphological variation which occurs in E. glaucus is at least partially attributed to the self pollinating nature of the species.
Good forage for livestock and wild animals.
Valuable forage for Rocky Mountain elk in all seasons, especially summer and fall (Kufeld 1973).
Many grasses are hosts for the larva of the common wood nymph (Cercyonis pegala) and the common ringlet (Coenonympha californica) butterflies (Pocewicz 2005).

Sun requirement: full sun to partial light shade

Soil moisture: mesic

Precipitation: 16-60 inches (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2009).

Fire: Crowns survive most fires. Recolonizes from surviving crowns and seeds. Population density is highest the first few years following a fire (Johnson 1999).

Sowing time: spring

Transplant time: spring

Stratification: not required

Seed yield: high

Seed harvest: medium difficulty

Seed first harvest: second season

Seed cleaning: medium difficulty

Planting duration: medium

Seed insect problem: none noted

Seed shatter: high

Seed size: large

Seed harvest date: July

Seed comments: Seed shatters more readily than many other grasses. Close monitoring is required to determine optimum swathing time. Awns must be removed for effective cleaning and mechanical sowing.

Herbaria: Specimen data and digital resources from The Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria

Key words: native upland grass

Propagation:
9 protocols in the Native Plant Network
plugs, Pullman WA Plant Materials Center
seed, Pullman WA Plant Materials Center
seed, Corvallis OR Plant Materials Center
seed, Bridger MT Plant Materials Center
seed, Bridger MT Plant Materials Center
plugs, Glacier National Park, MT
seed, Lockford CA Plant Materials Center
seed, J. Herbert Stone Nursery, Oregon
University of Kentucky

Other propagation information:
Stratification not needed (McLean 1967).
No stratification required. Plants can be propagated by divisions (Rose et al 1998).
Seed loses germination after a few years but cool dry storage might reduce loss (Link 1993).
Non-dormant (Hoffman 1985).
Alpine seed germination improves with after-ripening (Kaye 1997).
No pretreatment needed (Mirov & Kraebel 1939).
No treatment needed (Archibald et al 2000).
Seed will store 10 years with over 60% germination under cool dry conditions (Dremann 2003).
Ripe seed held at 15-23 ^oC maintained germination for 22 months, but dropped rapidly after that. The same trend was noted for seed harvested in milk or soft dough stages, but germination was always lower (McAllister 1943).
For alpine seed sources, gibberellic acid increased germination, but stratification did not (McDonough 1969).
Germinates at a wide range of temperatures (Plummer 1943).
Reproduces sexually by seed.

Notes: Prefers more moist sites. Not common on the prairie.

References:
Archibald, Colleen, Steve Feigner, and Johan Visser. 2000. Seed and Seedling Production of Blue Wild-Rye (Elymus glaucus). Native Plants Journal 1(1):32-34.

Baldwin, B.G., S. Boyd, B.J. Ertter, D.J. Keil, R.W. Patterson, T.J. Rosatti, and D.H. Wilken (eds). 2004. Jepson Online Interchange for California Floristics. University and Jepson Herbaria, University of California, Berkeley, CA. Accessed 8/17/09 online at http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/interchange.html

Barkworth, Mary E., Julian J.N. Campbell, and Bjorn Salomon. 2002. Elymus. In: Barkworth, Mary E., Kathleen M. Capels, Laurel Anderton, Sandy Long, and Michael B. Piep (eds.). 2002. Manual of Grasses for North America. Utah State University Herbarium. Logan, Utah. Online at http://herbarium.usu.edu/GrassManual/

Darris, Dale C., Scott M. Lambert, and William C. Young III. 1996. Seed Production of Blue Wildrye. Plant Materials Tech Note 17, USDA, NRCS, Portland, OR.

Dremann, Craig. 2003. Observations on Bromus carinatus and Elymus glaucus Seed Storage and Longevity. Native Plants Journal 4(1):61-64.

Erickson, Vicky J., Nancy L. Mandel, and Frank Sorensen. 2004. Landscape Patterns of Phenotypic Variation and Population Structuring in a Selfing Grass, Elymus glaucus (blue wildrye). Canadian Journal of Botany 82:1776-1789.

Hassell, Wendell, W. Rocky Beavers, Steve Ouellette, and Thomas Mitchell. 1996. Seeding Rate Statistics for Native and Introduced Species. US Dept of Interior and USDA, NRCS. Denver, CO.

Hoffman, George R. 1985. Germination of Herbaceous Plants Common to Aspen Forests of Western Colorado. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 112:409-413.

Johnson, Kathleen A. 1999. Elymus glaucus. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/ [2009, August 18].

Kaye, T.N. 1997. Seed Dormancy in High Elevation Plants: Implications for Ecology and Restoration. In: Kaye, T.N., A. Liston, R.M. Love, D. Luoma, R.J. Meinke, and M.V. Wilson [editors]. Conservation and Management of Native Plants and Fungi. Native Plant Society of Oregon, Corvallis, Oregon.

Knapp, E.E., and K.J. Rice. 1996. Genetic Structure and Gene Flow in Elymus glaucus (blue wildrye): Implications for Native Grassland Restoration. Restoration Ecology 4:1-10.

Kufeld, Roland. 1973. Foods Eaten by the Rocky Mountain Elk. Journal of Range Management 26:106-113.

Link, Ellen (ed.). 1993. Native Plant Propagation Techniques for National Parks Interim Guide. USDA, NRCS, Rose Lake Plant Materials Center. East Lansing, MI.

McAlister, D.F. 1943. The Effect of Maturity on the Viability and Longevity of the Seeds of Western Range and Pasture Grasses. Journal of the American Society of Agronomy 35:442-453.

McDonough, Walter T. 1969. Effective Treatments for the Induction of Germination in Mountain Rangeland Species. Northwest Science 43:18-22.

McLean, Alastair. 1967. Germination of Forest Range Species from British Columbia. Journal of Range Management. 20:321-322.

Mirov, N.T., and C.J. Kraebel. 1939. Collecting and Handling Seeds of Wild Plants. Civilian Conservation Corps Forestry publ. No.5. US Government Printing Office. Washington, DC.

Plummer, A. Perry. 1943. The Germination and Early Seedling Development of Twelve Range Grasses. Journal of the American Society of Agronomy 35:19-34.

Pocewicz, Amy. 2005. Host Plants of Palouse Butterfly Species. 2 page handout to accompany the April 2005 presentation to the Palouse Prairie Foundation.

Rose, Robin, Caryn E.C. Chachulski, and Diane L. Haase. 1998. Propagation of Pacific Northwest Native Plants. Oregon State University Press, Corvallis, OR.

Snyder, Leon A. 1950. Morphological Variability and Hybrid Development in Elymus glaucus. American Journal of Botany 37:626-638.

USDA NRCS. 2009. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 18 August 2009). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

Links:
Plant Profile from the USDA PLANTS Database
Species account from the Fire Effects Information System
Species description from Grass Manual on the Web
Species treatment from the Jepson Online Interchange.
Species information from the University of Washington Herbarium
Plant Guide from the USDA PLANTS Database