American Dunegrass - Leymus mollis ssp mollis

• Family: (Poaceae (Grass family)) ^[E-flora]

Identification

• SUBTAXA PRESENT IN BC
  • Leymus mollis ssp. mollis [E-flora]

• Synonyms: The names are confusing but here's what I've found;
• Elymus arenarius L. subsp. Mollis = Leymus mollis [Jernigan EYK] 1/3 confidence as syn [ThePlantList] Elymus arenarius is a separate species from L. mollis ^{[ThePlantList]}
• ''Elymus mollis = Leymus mollis (3/3 Confidence)^{[ThePlantList]}
• Triticum molle (Trin.) F.Herm. (3/3 Confidence)^{[ThePlantList]}
• Elymus aleuticus Hultén (3/3 Confidence)^{[ThePlantList]}
• Elymus capitatus Scribn. (3/3 Confidence)^{[ThePlantList]}
• Elymus cladostachys Turcz. (3/3 Confidence)^{[ThePlantList]}
• Elymus dives J.Presl (3/3 Confidence)^{[ThePlantList]}

Habitat / Range
Moist to mesic sandy or gravelly beaches and shoreline forests in the lowland zone; common in coastal BC; amphiberingian, N to AK, YT and N, E to NF and S to NH, PA, MI, IL and CA; Greenland, E Asia. ^{[IFBC-E-flora]} The species has a northern circumpolar distribution. It’s found on sandy beaches throughout coastal Alaska. Elders considered that the seed heads are the male part, and the leaves are the female part. [Jernigan EYK] "It is native to Asia, where it occurs in Japan, China, Korea, and Russia, and northern parts of North America, where it occurs across Canada and the northern United States, as well as Greenland.[1][2] It can also be found in Iceland.[1]" ^[Wiki]

• Origin Status: Native ^[E-flora]
• General: Perennial, tufted grass from thick, ascending rhizomes forming large clumps; stems erect, stout, usually finely but copiously hairy or sometimes smooth above, 50-150 cm tall. ^{[IFBC-E-flora]}
  
• Leaves: Sheaths open, smooth; blades tough, very finely minutely rough appressed-hairy on the upper surfaces and smooth underneath, with numerous prominent nerves, flat to in-rolled, 6-15 mm wide; ear-shaped lobes usually developed at some leaf-bases; ligules more or less fringed with fine hairs, scarcely 1 mm long. ^{[IFBC-E-flora]}
  
• Flowers: Inflorescence a stout spike, (10) 15-30 cm long, 1-2 cm wide; spikelets paired, 4- to 6-flowered, unstalked or if occasionally short-stalked then inflorescence slightly compounded, 20-30 (33) mm long; glumes lanceolate, usually soft-hairy but sometimes only sparsely short-hairy, prominently 3-to 6-nerved and flat, at least at the base, usually membranous-margined, long-pointed, mostly nearly equal to the spikelets, 15-25 mm long, awn-tipped; lemmas generally copiously soft-hairy but rarely only sparsely hairy, mostly prominently-nerved, membranous-margined, 10-20 mm long, long-pointed to abruptly slender-tipped, but scarcely awned; anthers 5-9 mm long. ^{[IFBC-E-flora]}
  
• Notes: A hybrid between Leymus mollis and Elymus glaucus, known only from Ucluelet and Gold River, has been named Leymus x uclueletensis (Bowden) Baum (Elymus x uclueletensis Bowden). A second hybrid, which is infrequent in SW BC, Leymus x vancouverensis (Vasey) Pilger (Elymus vancouverensis Vasey), has been proposed as a hybrid between Leymus mollis and L. triticoides (Buckl.) Pilger. See Hitchcock et al. (1969) for more detailed descriptions of these hybrids. ^{[IFBC-E-flora]}

Edible Uses

• Seed: One elder said that the seeds are edible, and that people who are out hunting sometimes eat them as a snack. [Jernigan EYK]

Other Uses

• Weaving Material:''' The rye-like Leymus mollis is woven into minute and sophisticated baskets and little boxes, but also into big mats, which lie on the floor and decorate the walls of their underground housing. The most amazing items made out of this grass are impermeable rain coats! [Svanberg EE] Used in basketry and for making tumplines and packstraps (Underhill, 1944). The Saanich and Cowichan Salish tucked this grass into the ravels of reef nets to make them strong (Harry, 1969). [Turner&Bell1]
  • Baketry: The leaves are also harvested in the fall to make many useful things. Some elders say the grass that grows in the dunes closest to the sea is strongest. They believe that the salt air toughens them. Another person suggested that grass growing farther away from the shore can be sprinkled with salt water to make it stronger. After picking, the grass is braided together and hung to dry. The most important use is for making baskets. Some baskets serve for hanging food, including dried fish. The grass can also be woven to make a variety of other objects such as jump ropes, bags and kayak mats.[Jernigan EYK]
  • Lining: Used as a lining in clothes, shoes and gloves. [Svanberg EE]
  • Hunting Tool: Saanich hunters called does by whistling through a blade of grass (Jenhess, ca. 1945).[Turner&Bell1]

Cultivation

• Soil Stabilizer: Among the native plants that can stabilize a low dune is dune grass (Leymus mollis subsp. mollis); a still more effective stabilizer is beach grass (Ammophila arenaria subsp. arenaria), brought to North America from Europe to reduce the extent to which loose sand moves in the direction of homes and highways. [Kozloff PWO] The grass grows from a large rhizome that anchors it into shifting and unstable sands. When there are many plants on a dune, their rhizomes form a network that helps to stabilize it, preventing erosion. The network becomes "the skeleton of the foredune."[6] This makes the grass a valuable species for landscape rehabilitation in native beach habitat.[7] ^[Wiki]
• Fungal Disease Resistance: In addition to these tolerance factors, Leymus mollis is also resistant to many fungal diseases. (16)^[Wiki]

Elymus Sp. - Wildrye

"Habit: Annual, perennial herb, rhizomes 0 to well developed. Stem: generally bent at base or erect, generally tufted. Leaf: auricles present, occasionally small, fragile; ligule membranous, truncate to obtuse; blade flat, folded, or rolled. Inflorescence: spike-like (raceme-like or panicle-like), open to dense; axis generally remaining intact with age; spikelets 1--3(7) at all or most nodes, generally ascending. Spikelet: compressed laterally, glumes generally lanceolate to awn-like, occasionally 0, awned from tip or not; florets 1--11; breaking apart above glumes and between florets; lemma generally > glumes, generally rounded, 5--7-veined, tip generally acute to awned, awn straight or curved outward; palea <, =, or > lemma or 0; anthers 3(1), 1--8 mm. Species In Genus: +- 235 species: temperate worldwide. Etymology: (Greek: covered, a reference to grain being tightly covered by palea and lemma) Note: References to number of spikelets per node is best understood as "most, if not all" and best determined by examining nodes in middle of inflorescence. Intergeneric and interspecific hybrids, along with effects of soil moisture on plant growth, render keys even more challenging and frustrating than usual. As treated here, genus includes taxa previously assigned to Agropyron (in part), Elytrigia, Leymus, Pascopyrum, Pseudoroegneria, and Taeniatherum. Elymus ×aristatus Merr., Elymus arizonicus (Scribn. & J.G. Sm.) Gould, Elymus canadensis L., Elymus interruptus Buckley, Agropyron junceum (L.) P. Beauv. [Thinopyrum junceum (L.) Á. Löve], and Elymus pycnanthus (Godr.) Melderis [Thinopyrum pycnanthum (Godr.) Barkworth] have been reported for California, may occur sporadically, but do not appear to have become naturalized. Intergeneric hybrids involving Hordeum constitute the genus ×Elyhordeum and are cited in species descriptions. Elymus farctus (Viv.) Melderis subsp. boreo-atlanticus (Simonet & Guin.) Melderis [Elytrigia juncea (L.) Nevski subsp. boreo-atlantica (Simonet & Guin.) Hylander] naturalized, under eradication at Oceano Dunes." [Jepson]

Local Species;

1. Leymus mollis - dune wildrye ^[E-flora]
2. Leymus triticoides - creeping wildrye ^[E-flora]
3. Leymus x vancouverensis - hybrid wildrye ^[E-flora]

References

• [E-flora] http://linnet.geog.ubc.ca/Atlas/Atlas.aspx?sciname=Leymus%20mollis [Accessed: 4/09/2015]
• [Jepson] James P. Smith, Jr. 2012, Elymus mollis subsp. mollis, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=70142, accessed on April 13, 2020.
• ThePlantList - http://www.theplantlist.org, Accessed Aug 29, 2016
• Wiki - Leymus_mollis, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leymus_mollis, Accessed Aug 29, 2016
  • [1]Higman, P. J. and M. R. Penskar. 1999. Special plant abstract for Leymus mollis (American dune wild-rye). Michigan Natural Features Inventory, Lansing, MI.
  • [2]Leymus mollis. Germplasm Resources Information Network. http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?102171
  • [6]Gagné, J.; Houle, G. (2002). "Factors responsible for Honckenya peploides (Caryophyllaceae) and Leymus mollis (Poaceae) spatial segregation on subarctic coastal dunes". Am. J. Bot. 89 (3): 479–485. doi:10.3732/ajb.89.3.479.
  • [7]Goodman, T. Report on revegetation with Leymus mollis on the foredune at Ma-l’el Dunes Unit, Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge. US Fish and Wildlife Service. Arcata, California. June, 2009.
  • [16]Li, H., Fan, R., Fu, S., Wei, B., Xu, S., Feng, J., ... & Zhang, X. (2015). Development of Triticum aestivum-Leymus mollis Translocation Lines and Identification of Resistance to Stripe Rust. Journal of genetics and genomics= Yi chuan xue bao, 42(3), 129.