Ontario Weeds: Quack grass
Table of Contents
- Name
- Other Names
- Family
- General Description
- Stems and Roots
- Flowers and Fruit
- Habitat
- Related Links
Name: Quack grass, Agropyron repens
(L.) Beauv.,
Other Names: AGGRE, chiendent, Couch grass,
Quitch grass, Scutch grass, Twitch, Twitch grass, chiendent rampant,
agropyron rampant, Elytrigia repens (L.) Nevski, Elymus
repens (L.) Gould
Family: Grass Family (Gramineae)
General Description: Perennial, spreading
by seed and by light-coloured underground stems (rhizomes). Rhizomes
have nodes or joints and internodes, and hard, white, very sharp-pointed
tips. They produce roots and branches from the nodes. Some branches
turn upwards to emerge as leafy stems. Others continue growing and
branching horizontally and expand the patch. Each internode is partly
covered by a short, light brown, dry, scaly sheath. It is distinguished
from Smooth brome by its slender, unbranched seed head (spike), the
presence of auricles its split sheath, and its sharp-pointed light-coloured
rhizomes with short scaly sheaths.
Photos and Pictures
Quack grass (A - plants in head; B - leaf-base showing
auricles).
Quack grass
Quack grass. A. Non-flowering plant. B. Leaf-base.
C. Spike. D. 1 Spikelet.
Stem and leaf-base characteristics of a typical grass.
Stems & Roots: Stems erect, 30-120
cm (1-4 ft) tall, either not flowering during the whole growing season
or producing a slender, unbranched inflorescence called a spike; stem
nodes (joints) distinct and often purplish. Leaves flat, nearly smooth;
lower leaf sheaths hairy, upper ones often smooth, sheaths split with
margins overlapping; auricles present and clasping the stem like little
hooks. Spike (seed head) with 1 (rarely 2) unstalked spikelet at each
node or joint.
Flowers & Fruit: Spikelets alternating
from one side of the rachis (central stalk of the spike) to the other,
and with their flat or broad side towards the rachis; each spikelet
made up of 3 to 7 florets ("seeds") side by side between 2
outer glumes (empty chaff), and either with short awns (bristles) or
awnless. Flowers from June to September.
Habitat: Quack grass occurs in cultivated
fields, pastureland, waste places, rights-of-way, lawns and gardens
in almost any soil texture throughout Ontario. This is the most troublesome
perennial weedy grass in Ontario and throughout Canada.
Related Links
... on general Weed
topics
... on weed identification, order OMAFRA Publication 505: Ontario Weeds
... on weed control, order OMAFRA Publication 75: Guide To Weed Control
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