Mortality in Crested Wheatgrass and Russian Wildrye

Mortality in crested wheatgrass and Russian wildrye near Kamloops, B.C., was observed in spring, 1970, and appeared to result from lower than average soil moisture reserves the previous season. Damage was heavy on a silt loam that graded to loamy fine sand at 50-cm depth but was negligible on a uniform sandy loam overlying cobbly loamy sand. Field moisture levels below 25-cm depth in the soil were greater on the sandy loam site than on the silt loam in spring, 1970. In that year, crested wheatgrass reached seed-set stage on the former, but inflorescences did not emerge from the boot on the latter site, where significant mortality occurred. No other published account of severe mortality of established stands of these grasses has been found.This material was digitized as part of a cooperative project between the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries.The Journal of Range Management archives are made available by the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact lbry-journals@email.arizona.edu for further information.Migrated from OJS platform August 202