Deschampsia elongata - slender hairgrass
Deschampsia elongata is a perennial bunch grass widespread throughout the western USA that grows in meadows with disturbance, roadsides, and the shores of steams, ponds, and lakes at sea level to 2700 m elevation (FNA 2022; OregonFlora 2022). It has high ecological value for its ability to colonize disturbed areas, prevent erosion, and is valuable species for use in restoration plantings. Others have reported it is used in road decommissioning projects (OregonFlora 2022).
Seed Propagation
Collect fruit when the stem supporting the tissue is dry and brown and/or the fruits are easily dislodged from the plant. The fruits are single seeded grains. Seeds can last more than 20 years in cold, dry storage (5 °C, 25% relative humidity).
Seeds are easily and quickly propagated from seed. Seeds collected in 2001, stored in cold, dry storage, and sown in summer of 2022 had high germination (>75%) within 2 weeks after sowing. Seeds were sown within Petri dishes containing moist germination paper and placed within a growth chamber at 25/15 °C high/low temperature cycle and 12 hours of white-fluorescent light that coincided to daily high temperature.
Quick and high germination percentages of 20-year-old seed indicates seeds remain viable for long periods of time in storage. It is unclear if seeds are nondormant or if seeds possess dormancy at maturity and undergo after-ripening in storage.
Production
Seedlings transferred to 48-cell seedling trays in mid-June formed plugs with firm rootballs less than one month after sowing, and plugs placed in 4-inch pots fertilized with a 1/8 tsp of slow-release fertilizer (15-9-12 NPK) formed landscape ready plants within two months for a total of a 3-month production cycle. Plants were grown within a potting mix (45% mulch, 25% peat moss, 20% pumice, 5% vermiculite and 5% perlite) and placed in a climate-controlled research greenhouse while in seedling trays and outdoors when placed in 4-inch containers in a full sun nursery production system located on the Portland State University campus in Portland, Oregon.
References
[FNA] Flora of North America Editorial Committee, eds. 1993+. Flora of North America North of Mexico [Online]. 22+ vols. New York and Oxford. Website http:// floranorthamerica.org. [accessed March 2022].
OregonFlora. 2022. OregonFlora database and website. Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR. Website: http://oregonflora.org [accessed July 2022].