Alopecurus geniculatus

Knick- foxtail ( Alopecurus geniculatus ) ( herbarium )

The kink - foxtail ( Alopecurus geniculatus ), also kink - Foxtail, is a species in the family of grasses ( Poaceae ).

Features

The buckling of foxtail grass is a perennial plant that makes short underground runners. The renewal shoots grow up within the lowest leaf sheath. The stalks are usually 15 to 45, rarely 5 cm long, thin and knelt - ascending. Your lowest node are rooted and branches, they can also flood the water. You have 5 to 8 knots. The leaf sheaths are glabrous, striate, the lowest of the leaves turn brown and tear fibrous. The ligule is a membranous hem 2-4 (rarely 6) mm in length. Leaf blades are 2 to 12, rarely up to 22 cm long and 2 to 4, rarely to 6 mm wide. They are flat - spread and rough, on the bottom sometimes smooth.

The panicle is 1-5, rarely to 8 cm long and 3-5 mm wide. It is cylindrical and dense, the side branches are grown in the lower part of the main axis. The spikelets are flowered and without the awn 2.2 to 3.5 mm long. Their shape is long - elliptical, to maturity, they fall off as a whole. The glumes are similar and fused together at the base at the edges. You have three nerves are the same length as the spikelet, keeled of narrow - elliptical shape and. At the keel they are ciliated tight, covered with shorter hair on the sides. The lemma is four annoying, 2 to 2.6 mm long, from narrow - elliptical shape and bare. The edges are fused together in the lowest third. Sits an awn in the lowest quartile on the back. This is geniculate, 3-5 mm long and protrudes 2-3 mm from the glumes. The Untergranne is rotated. The palea is missing. The dust bags are 1.2 to 1.8 mm long, at first yellowish, then brown. Flowering period: May to August.

The fruit is compressed from 1.2 to 1.5 mm long and laterally. The chromosome number is 2n = 28

Dissemination and locations

The kink foxtail is native to Europe, northern Asia and North America.

In northern Germany the species is widespread and common, only scattered in the south. It grows from the plains in mountainous areas. In the Black Forest, it rises to 1140 m, and 1550 m in the Alps. In Austria, the species is rare and is classified as endangered nationwide. In Switzerland, it applies nationwide as vulnerable ( " vulnerable" ), in some areas it is endangered ( "endangered " ), in the Eastern Central Alps it became extinct.

The kink foxtail grows in open pioneer communities, such as on the banks of flowing and standing waters and along the edges of ditches. In addition, it also occurs on wet meadows and Wegmulden that are flooded at certain times and only slowly dry out, and on moorland meadows. It also grows in the water flutend. It tolerates salt and grows mostly on changing eating, nutrient - and base-rich, rather humic clay and silt soils with neutral to moderately acidic soil pH. It is a light plant and a pointer for plant moisture, nutrient rich and oxygen depletion of the soil.

Phytosociological this grass is a Ordnungskennart the flood grass and wet meadows ( Agrostietalia stoloniferae ) and a Assoziationskennart the buckling Foxtail grass ( Ranunculo repentis - Alopecuretum geniculati ).

Hybrid

The kink foxtail forms with other Foxtail grasses natural hybrids:

Importance

Despite its widespread use, the type does not matter as forage grass. Horses and cattle they eat have loved, but she is very ertragsarm, so that a sowing is not worthwhile.

Trivial names

More in part only regional common names for the kink foxtail are or were: Flott grass, river grass, Fluttgras and Muse Tert ( Ostfriesland).

Documents

In addition to the sources listed in the detailed records of the products based on the following documents:

  • H. J. Conert: Pareys grasses book. Identify and determine the grasses Germany. Blackwell Scientific Publishers, Berlin, Vienna 2000, p 84 ISBN 3-8263-3327-6
Pooideae Genus Awn (botany) Husk
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