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Beardless Wildrye (Elymus triticoides)

Plant Species
From Montana Interagency Plant Materials Handbook *
 By S. Smoliak, R.L. Ditterline, J.D. Scheetz, L.K. Holzworth, J.R. Sims, L.E. Wiesner, D.E. Baldridge, and G.L. Tibke

Beardless wildrye is a native, cool-season, perennial, rhizomatous, sod-forming species adapted to wet, saline-alkaline soils of medium to heavy textures. It makes excellent cover and has high yields under these conditions.

The foliage remains green into late summer and has fair regrowth. It seldom grows in extensive stands.

Beardless wildrye is primarily used for reclamation of wet, saline soils. It can be used on both saline-affected, irrigated cropland and pastureland. It is also used on saline seep discharge areas on dry cropland.

It also can be used for forage, stabilization and wildlife cover plantings. It is palatable to all livestock. Once established, beardless wildrye is very rhizomatous and maintains stands for many years.

In soils too saline to be planted with seed, stands can often be established by sprigging root and rhizome material directly into wet, saline-affected areas. In tests conducted at the Bridger Plant Materials Center, beardless wildrye was the easiest of the grasses to establish on highly-saline soils using the sprigging method of planting. This species has many attributes and deserves extensive study.

Description

This creeping, rhizomatous perennial is native on saline-alkaline sites. The leaves of beardless wildrye are predominately basal, and the culms range from 20 to 40 inches in height.

A well-branched and extensive root system occupies the upper 20 inches of soil with some roots extending down to five feet.

Flowering begins in late spring, and mature seed is present by mid-summer.

Adaptation

Although preferring sandy, coarse soils, beardless wildrye does well on poorly-drained soils and ranges from uplands and slopes to bottomlands. It is found up to elevations of 8,400 feet throughout the western United States where precipitation exceeds 18 inches or where wet, saline-alkaline subirrigated sites exist.

The species tolerates neutral to basic pH's. Winterhardiness and frost tolerance are good, though variable among seed lots.

Beardless wildrye is not recommended on well-drained, dryland sites. This grass is suitable for planting on highly-erodible sites. It is moderately shade tolerant.

Limitations

High levels of seed dormancy make stand establishment difficult. Mechanical scarification of the seed greatly improves germination. This grass should be planted as a late fall, dormant seeding because seed dormancy is broken by the cold when overwintering in the soil.

Beardless wildrye seedlings develop slowly and compete poorly with weeds and other forage grasses in the early stages of development. Therefore, it is very important to minimize weed competition with properly-prepared seedbeds.

Use for Hay

Beardless wildrye is highly productive when planted for hay production on subirrigated sites or under irrigation. Good yields depend on adequate levels of fertility, especially available nitrogen.

Use for Pasture

This moderately-palatable species should be grazed from mid-spring through the summer. Growth is initiated in early spring and continues at a maximum rate until mid-summer. Leaves remain green into fall.

Growing season nutrition and winter nutrition are relatively poor, though winter energy is considered moderately good.

Beardless wildrye is considered palatable to all livestock.

Amounts of forage produced depend upon the levels of salts and moisture in the soil. High concentrations of salts and/or low levels of moisture result in lower yields of forage, poorer stand establishment and longer establishment periods for good stands.

Seed Production

Seed production from cultivated stands has generally been poor; however, seed yields of the cultivar `Shoshone' average about 200 pounds per acre and does not require much different management than other grasses. The susceptibility to shatter is low, but it is still recommended that the crop be combined from the windrow. No special problems are presented in cleaning the seed.

* The Montana Interagency Plant Materials Handbook (EB69) is no longer in print, but is available for viewing in
Montana County Extension Service and National Resource Conservation Service Offices.