VIRGINIA WILD RYE
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| File Size: 107 KB |
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Elymus virginicus L.
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| Riley County, Kansas |
| Perennial |
| Height: 2-4 feet |
| Family: Poaceae - Grass Family |
| Flowering Period: May, June, July |
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| Culms: | | Erect, rigid, hollow, glabrous. | | Blades: | | Flat or occasionally rolled inward, 2-12 inches long, to 3/4 inch wide, green or occasionally blue-green, waxy, glabrous, rough or hairy. | | Sheaths: | | Open, shorter than internodes, mostly glabrous. | | Ligules: | | Short, membranous, rigid. | | Inflorescences: | | Spikes, stiffly upright, 2-6 inches long, terminal, partially enclosed in upper sheath or protruding completely. | | Spikelets: | | Usually 2 per node, sessile, 2-6-flowered; glumes equal, thick, rigid, yellowish, 1/2 to 1 inch long, 3-8 ribbed, often strongly bowed out at bases, awnless to long-awned; lemmas shorter than glumes, awns straight, 1/4 to 1 inch long. | | Habitat: | | Bottomlands, low prairies, stream banks, and edges of woods, in moist, fertile soils. | | Distribution: | | Throughout Kansas. | | Forage Value: | | Virginia wild rye is palatable and nutritious for livestock, but it becomes tough when mature. It makes good hay when cut early. | | Comments: | | Tufted. Virginia wild rye decreases with overgrazing. |
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| Virginia wild rye |  | | 151 KB | | Riley County, Kansas |
| | Virginia wild rye |  | | 80 KB | | Riley County, Kansas |
| | Virginia wild rye ligule |  | | 64 KB | | Riley County, Kansas |
| | Virginia wild rye inflorescence |  | | 66 KB | | Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Chase County, Kansas |
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