Russian Wild-Rye. Page: 2
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RUSSIAN WILD-RYE
By GEORGE A. ROGLER, agronomist, Division of Forage Crops and Diseases, Bureau
of Plant Industry, Soils, and Agricultural Engineering, Agricult lral Research
4Adin iistration
RUSSIAN WILD-RYE (Elymus j.unceus Fisch.) is an introduced,
long-lived perennial buncligrass adapted to the semiarid conditions
of the northern part of the Great Plains and Intermountain States.
It is especially useful as a pasture grass for spring an(l summer grazing.
Russian wild-rye remains palatable during its entire grazing period
and is readily eaten by sheep and cattle.
The native distribution of this grass is extremely wide. It grows
naturally on dry, saline soils of the steppes and steppe slopes from
Iran northward to the lower Volga River an(l lower Don River regions
of the Union of Soviet Socialist Repllblics eastward into western
Siberia and across Asia to Outer Mongolia.
History and Development in the United States
The first recorded introduction of Russian wild-rve was in 1927,
when a locally grown variety from the Western Siberian Experiment
Station at Omsk was received by the United States Department of
Agriculture. Seed had been brought into this country a number of
years earlier, however, either in mixtures with other grasses or under
the name of some other species. In 1913 a plant specimen, sent by
the superintendent of the experiment station at Dickinson, N. Dak.,
to the National Herbarium, was identified as Elymus junceus. In
1923 a number of scattered plants were observed growing in a threshing
yard at the Dickinson station near a grass nursery that had been
planted in 1907.
The 1927 introduction was sent to several agricultural experiment
stations in western United States for testing. The grass was grown
under observation in rows at the Northern Great Plains Field Station,
Mandan, N. Dak., until 1935, when small increase plots were planted.
Seed was collected from these plantings, and plots, several acres in
size, were established by the United States Soil Conservation Service,
at Mandan, in 1937. Spaced-plant nurseries were also established to
study breeding behavior and to select improved strains. Seed was
sent to other stations for testing.
Seed was released to the general public in 1941 and 1942, when small
lots were sent to farmers in North Dakota and South Dakota. As far
as is known, all the Russian wild-rye growing in the United States,
except for a few miscellaneous strains in nurseries, originated from
the 1927 introduction, which traces back to the Mnandan plantings.
Description and Characteristics
Russian wild-rye is a large bunchgrass, with erect, naked stems
about 3 feet tall, arising from an abundance of long, dense, basal leaves
Issued( October 1951
2
9538160 -51
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Rogler, George A. (George Albert), 1913-. Russian Wild-Rye., book, October 1951; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1797/m1/2/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.