Reed Canarygrass in Alaska: Influence of Latitude-of-Adaptation on Winter Survival and Forage Productivity, and Observations on Seed Production
Leslie J. Klebesadel, Emeritus Professor of Agronomy
Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station; Palmer, Alaska
and
Stephen M. Dofing, Assistant Professor of Agronomy
Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station; Palmer, Alaska
Bulletin 84; November 1991 (24 pages)
Summary
North American strains of reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea L.) frequently sustain severe winter injury or total winterkill in southcentral Alaska. Objectives of this study were to compare reed canarygrass strains adapted to extreme northern latitudes in Europe with North American cultivars for winter-hardiness and forage production in Alaska.
The strains 'Rovik' and 'Hansvoll' from 69° to 70° N latitude in Norway were markedly superior in winter survival to 10 North American cultivars in all experiments, and more winter-hardy than nine other north-European accessions from 55° to 60° N in two experiments. Rovik and Hansvoll survived well through four consecutive winters, including one beyond termination of the experiments. Two accessions from northern sources in the Soviet Union were intermediate in winter-hardiness between those from northern Norway and three somewhat less hardy USSR accessions and one from Sweden; all of the accessions from Norway, the Soviet Union, and Sweden surpassed the less hardy strains from Denmark and North
America in winter survival. In one experiment, a reed canarygrass from above 61° N in Canada was much less winter-injured than the more southern-adapted North American strains.
Seeding-year forage yields of the Norwegian strains were lower than the 10 North American reed canarygrass cultivars, and second-year yields of the Norwegian strains were lower than most of the non-Phalaris grasses compared. Nonetheless, the vastly more winter-hardy Norwegian strains reveal that a previously untapped reservoir of northern-adapted reed canarygrass germplasm exists for use in Alaska.
The introductions evaluated in this study and future accessions of reed canarygrass from far-northern European and North American sources should provide more dependably winter-hardy germplasm of this species than North American cultivars for the considerable areas of poorly drained and moderately acidic soils in Alaska for which most other forage or soil stabilization grass species are poorly suited.