Deschampsia cespitosa (L.) P. Beauv. var. arctica Vasey

Scientific Name: Deschampsia cespitosa (L.) P. Beauv. var. arctica Vasey

Deschampsia cespitosa (L.) P. Beauv. var. arctica Vasey

General Information
Usda Symbol	DECEA3
Group	Monocot
Life Cycle	Perennial
Growth Habits	Graminoid
Native Locations	DECEA3

Plant Guide

Use soil moisture sensors to measure the soil moisture of Deschampsia cespitosa (L.) P. Beauv. var. arctica Vasey.

Fact Sheet

Uses

Tufted hairgrass is useful for restoring moist to seasonally wet prairies and stabilizing disturbed sites, streambanks, canals, shorelines, and upper tidal marshes. Other applications include acid and heavy metal mine spoil reclamation, alpine and boreal revegetation work, and bio-filtration swales. As a range or pasture grass, it is both a desirable, productive forage for cattle and sheep particularly at higher elevations, and a species of lesser or low value in regions where plants are coarse and less palatable. The species is sometimes cut for hay. Utilization by deer, elk, pronghorn, bison, bear, horses, and rabbits is variable. Likewise, cover and food values are rated poor to good for small mammals, upland game birds, songbirds, and waterfowl depending on wildlife species and location. Tufted hairgrass is a larval food plant for several butterflies in North America and is host for at least 40 species of Lepidopteran insects world-wide. Varieties have been bred as wear resistant turf for golf courses, sports fields and other uses.

Description

Tufted hairgrass is a highly variable, perennial cool season species that grows 20 to 60 in. tall. Stems are erect and the leaves are .06 to .16 in. wide, flat or rolled, and mostly basal in a dense tuft. The panicle (seed head or inflorescence) is upright to nodding, loosely branched, open, and 4 to 10 in. long. There are two florets (flowers) per spikelet. Flowering occurs from May to September and seeds mature from late June to late September depending on location.

Status

Please consult the Plants Web site and your State Department of Natural Resources for this plant’s current status, such as state noxious and wetland indicator values.

Adaptation

Populations occupy moderately moist to seasonally flooded, sunny to partially shaded environments with a wide variety of soil types (fine to coarse, mesic to hydric) and pH ranging from 3,5 to 7,5, Some populations have extreme tolerance to heavy metals and high soil acidity, Salinity tolerance is generally considered low, but plants occurring in coastal estuaries may be slightly more salt tolerant, Crowns typically survive all but the most severe or hottest fires, Distribution-As one of the most widely distributed grasses on earth, tufted hairgrass is found in many arctic and temperate regions, It occurs from sea level to 14,000 ft in the mountains, Habitats include coastal terraces, upper tidal marshes, seasonally wet prairies, moist subalpine mountain meadows, open forests, and alpine areas above timberline, Limitations or environmental concerns Tufted hairgrass is host to a number of diseases including ergot, several rusts, stripe smut, blind seed, several leaf spots, and the turf disease take all patch, Insect pests typical of pasture and turf grasses include aphids, billbugs, leafhoppers, and others, In some parts of the world, this grass spreads readily into newly disturbed areas, is a weed in certain forage crops, and can become a serious competitor with trees, Reprinted with permission Univ, of WA Press Specific management practices are applied to wet, low elevation pastures in Europe in order to control it, Use soil moisture sensors to measure the soil moisture of Deschampsia cespitosa (L.) P. Beauv. var. arctica Vasey., The plant is considered nontoxic to livestock and humans, Uses such as general cover and turf can be limited by summer moistustress and billbugs,

Plant Traits

Growth Requirements

Morphology/Physiology

Reproduction

Suitability/Use

Deschampsia cespitosa (L.) P. Beauv. var. arctica Vasey

Deschampsia cespitosa (L.) P. Beauv. var. arctica Vasey

Deschampsia cespitosa (L.) P. Beauv. var. arctica Vasey

Deschampsia cespitosa (L.) P. Beauv. var. arctica Vasey