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Agropyron cristatum
Also called Crested wheat grass, Desert Wheatgrass, Fairway Crested Wheatgrass, Fairway Wheatgrass, Wheatgrass
Crested wheatgrass is a tough, drought-tolerant perennial grass widely sown for forage and erosion control on dry rangeland. It thrives in open, sunny sites with well-drained soil and needs little water once established.
Agropyron cristatum, the crested wheat grass, crested wheatgrass, fairway crested wheat grass, is a species in the family Poaceae. This plant is often used as forage and erosion control. It is well known as a widespread introduced species on the prairies of the United States and Canada.
Agropyron cristatum is best adapted to dry rangeland conditions and is most frequently found in such circumstances. It prefers from 23 to 38 cm of precipitation per year, but can tolerate more moisture on favourable sites, extending its range into tundra and taiga conditions and elevations up to 2000 m above sea level in the southern portions of its adapted area. It prefers well drained, deep, loamy soils of medium and moderately coarse texture, including Chernozemic, Solonetzic, Regosolic, Brunisolic and Luvisolic soils. A. cristatum can tolerate salinity in the range of 5 to 15 mS/cm and prefers moderately alkaline conditions. It has low to medium fertility requirements. It will not tolerate prolonged flooding.
Agropyron cristatum has been bred into many cultivars selected for attributes ranging from forage yield to drought tolerance to turf types that will exhibit more pronounced degrees of rhizomatous growth habit. It has been and continues to be, widely used in both agricultural and industrial reclamation activities.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Agropyron cristatum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
