REED CANARY GRASS
File Size: 49 KB
 
Phalaris arundinacea  L.
Jewell County, Kansas
Perennial
Height: 2-6 feet
Family: Poaceae - Grass Family
Flowering Period:   June, July, August
Culms: Erect, occasionally bent at base, coarse, glabrous.
Blades: Flat or slightly keeled, 3 to 16 inches long, 1/4 to 3/4 inch wide, glabrous or scabrous, margins rough, midrib prominent beneath, tip tapering to long point.
Sheaths: Round, glabrous, sometimes purplish, usually longer than internodes or the upper are sometimes shorter, prominently air-chambered.
Ligules: Thin papery membrane, pointed or rounded, tip entire to torn.
Inflorescences: Panicle, 3 to 7 inches long, .4 to 1.5 inch wide, dense, narrow, spreading during flowering, contracted later, lobed or interrupted, often reddish or purplish at flowering, straw-colored to whitish in fruit.
Spikelets: Occur in clusters on short ascending branches, crowded, lanceolate, about .2 inch long, pale, glabrous to pubescent, 3-flowered; florets 1 fertile, 2 sterile; glumes nearly equal, ovate to lanceolate, narrow, rough, 3-nerved, greenish-white to purplish, becoming straw-colored, tips pointed; fertile lemmas lanceolate, shiny, tan, glabrous or with light pubescence, awnless; sterile lemmas reduced to minute hairy scales.
Habitat: Wet places; river banks, ditches, stream and pond edges.
Distribution: Throughout Kansas.
Origin: Native to temperate North America, Europe, and Asia.
Forage Value: Good to fair forage for livestock and good hay when cut prior to maturity. Produces large yields. Also used for silage.
Uses: Waterfowl will nest in it. Native Americans made mats from reed canary grass.
Comments: Reed canary grass is strongly rhizomatous cool season grass that grows in large clumps 2-3 feet across. It is aggressive and may dominate wet areas. The seed is difficult to harvest due to shattering.

Reed canary grass
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Jewell County, Kansas
Reed canary grass flowering inflorescence
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Jewell County, Kansas
Reed canary grass ligule
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Reed canary grass ligule
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Reed canary grass post-flowering inflorescence
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Reed canary grass Reed canary grass post-flowering inflorescence
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Reed canary grass
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Reed canary grass blades
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Reed canary grass blades
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Reed canary grass leaf
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