Phalaris?

[Qhorakuna tantani]

I may as well be the first then ...

sorry about the largeish size of the first one and the slight fuzziness.

Is this a phalaris spp.? I've looked on the net and they seem mighty similar. It's growing in a place that gets alot of water, and where this water pools is where this grass is the highest. It's a little bit bigger than waist height at the moment.

[occidentalis]

Yep, I'd say this this is definitely a Phalaris species. Not sure which one though.

[Vertmorpheus]

The flower heads don't seem quite linear enough to me for Phalaris sp, more like pigeon grass or similar, but I am only used to seeing the chest height aquatica around here. Anyone in SEQ after P. aquatica or seed, location whatever email or IM me... loooaads around here in easily accessible places.Maidenii too.

[Torsten]

my vote is on Phalaris. collect the seed and if the plant dies before winter then it was P.aquatica.

[Auxin]

 

P. aquatica is a perennial

[Torsten]

P. aquatica is a perennial

not in adelaide it usually isn't

It's a tropical grass, but can tolerate some cold. In the southern Oz areas most plants simply die and regrow from the copious amount of seed the produce late in the season. Dry autumns usually favour survival as plants are more suspectible in active green growth.

[Auxin]

Are you sure they arent just regrowing from under the soil?

Two years ago I started turkish and insaeli strains of department of agriculture confirmed Phalaris aquatica and a iranian strain of P. arundinacea (all fairly warm countries) in 3 gallon pots of topsoil with the top 6 cm of soil sterilized. In the first year none of those 3 produced seed but the following spring (after months of freezing conditions and suffering -3°C highs and -10°C lows through the coldest month) they regrew from their roots and produced seed. I caught virtually all those seed and now with their second winter nearing its end I see the first signs of regrowth on them again.

In my experience they are perennial even in topsoil filled above ground pots in USDA zone 7a right on the border with 6b

This year I'm going to start a test a few strains of P. brachystachys for zone 7a hardiness in 5 gallon pots, thats a bit more iffy. I'll report that data in 13 months.

Edited March 1, 2007 by Auxin

[gerbil]

This is pretty basic but might be useful for you to get some more detailed information QT, disecting the inflorescence would be a good option IMO.

http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/inde...showtopic=13219

Edited March 1, 2007 by gerbil

[Torsten]

auxin, the frost sensitivity of Phalaris aquatica is well established and a major problem for many australian graziers as so much of the country gets occasional frosts of varying intensity. Just do a google for the name and 'frost'.

we don't get frost here, but even in our climate the juicy plants often fail over winter [incl dead roots]

Arundinacea is a hardy perennial. not sure where it comes from, but it grows well even in places that get long snow cover and frozen soil.

[Auxin]

Glad you told me - I'll make sure to keep enough seed in reserve incase one of my varieties dies off one of these winters.

Freaky tho, cause mine freeze solid as a rock down to the deepest root and survive. Heck one day I accidentally left a 5 gallon bucket of water out by the pots and by morning it was a 5 gallon ice cube, I turned it upside down and it was over a week before I could dislodge the bucket from the ice cube

[Torsten]

are you sure it is aquatica?

[Auxin]

I think it is. The dept. or ag. identified both independently as aquatica (granted I've seen them fuck up before, multiple times). The seed heads were shorter than normal, I attributed this to it being in a 3 gallon pot, but otherwise looked like this:

It did make me wonder but there was no caneriensis green/white variegation of the, er, seed head leaflets as seen in caneriensis pics:

Damn, I think I'm gonna have to go through all the literature and ID these proper this year to be sure. In highschool they told us dichotomous keys were used to ID things... sucks that in practice anything as convenient as a dichotomous key is virtually non existent

[Torsten]

happy to send you some local aquatica to compare over winter.

[Green Osiris]

Those last pics look exactly like the P.aquatica I have growing at a FOAFs. Seedstock from SAB, biut 1.5 y/ago.

[Auxin]

That would be awesome :D

I trust your scientific rigor far more than that of the USDA people and it'll give me a taxonomic and climactic basis for comparison.

[BlackDragon]

When IDing these plants, what characterisistics are you looking at/for? From my first hunts years ago, phalaris vairties can usually be IDed via the feather/wedge where the leaf blade meets the stalk. There way the blades open flat and the shape it taken on around the stalk is a great way to id different species. Eg, pull a bade gently down to expose the joint where it meets the stem, you will see cup/wings that form the securing mechanism for the blade, apparently, according to my grasseas of SA book, each grass species has a unique characteristic there. Does anyone else use this method? or only flower id?

[Chiral]

Has anyone growing P. Aquatica had it dying off around the Sydney basin over winter...?

H.