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Lolium perenne
Also called Perennial rye-grass, English Ryegrass, Common Rye Grass, Italian Ryegrass, Rye Grass, Perennial Rye, Strand Wheat
Perennial ryegrass is a low, tufted, hairless grass widely grown for pasture, forage and sports turf. It thrives in fertile soil with regular moisture and mild temperatures.
Lolium perenne, common name perennial ryegrass, English ryegrass, winter ryegrass, or ray grass, is a grass from the family Poaceae. It is native to Europe, Asia and northern Africa, but is widely cultivated and naturalised around the world.
Perennial ryegrass is an important pasture and forage plant, and is used in many pasture seed mixes. In fertile soil, it produces a high grass yield, and in Britain and Ireland, it is frequently sown for short-term ley grassland, often with red or white clover (Trifolium pratense or T. repens).
In Britain, it is also used as an indicator of nonspecies-rich grassland, as it outcompetes the rarer plants and grasses, especially in fertile soils. Agri-environment schemes such as the Countryside Stewardship Scheme, Environmentally Sensitive Areas Scheme, and Environmental Stewardship give funding to species-rich grasslands that do not have an abundance of ryegrass.
Perennial ryegrass is native to Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and eastwards to central Asia. As a useful species of grass for fodder and grazing livestock, it has been taken by farmers settling in new areas including North America, South Africa and Australia. It can be used to prevent erosion and to stabilise soils, as well as creating a hardwearing turf for lawns and golf courses. With its great ability to set seed, its ease of germination and vigour, it has spread from the fields where it has been planted to roadsides, trackways, footpaths, wasteland, river banks and sand dunes. In countries where it has been introduced, it may be regarded as an invasive species that competes with native plants.
Rye Grass · Tall fescue · Italian Rye Grass · Wimmera ryegrass · Darnel ryegrass
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Lolium perenne 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.
