Italian ryegrass

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Italian ryegrass
Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum)

Italian ryegrass ( Lolium multiflorum )

Systematics
Commelinids
Order : Sweet grass (Poales)
Family : Sweet grasses (Poaceae)
Subfamily : Pooideae
Genre : Lolch ( Lolium )
Type : Italian ryegrass
Scientific name
Lolium multiflorum
Lam.

The Italian ryegrass ( Lolium multiflorum ), and Italian ryegrass , Vielblütiges ryegrass , Italian ryegrass , Yearling ryegrass or Vielblütiger ryegrass called, is a flowering plant in the family of the sweet grasses (Poaceae).

description

Leaf base
Section of an inflorescence and detail of the spikelets
Illustration from Flora Batava , Volume 15

Vegetative characteristics

The Italian ryegrass is an annual to perennial herbaceous plant and reaches heights of 30 to 100 centimeters. It forms light green, upright, mostly very loose clumps . The Italian ryegrass roots down to a depth of 1 meter and can therefore survive longer periods of drought. The stalks, which are almost always rough in the upper area, are branched at most at the bottom.

The light green colored leaves are initially rolled and later spread out flat. On the underside they appear shiny and smooth, on the top they are rough. The leaf base is drawn out into two crescent-shaped ears that encircle the stalk. The ligule is formed as a 1 to 3 millimeter long, membranous border. The slightly rough and slightly grooved leaf blade is up to 25 cm long and up to 1 cm wide.

Generative characteristics

The flowering period extends from June to August. The mostly upright spiked inflorescence can be up to 30 cm long and has alternately arranged, single spikelets . The spikelets are almost horizontal to the anthesis and contain 11 to 20 flowers. At maturity the spikelets disintegrate quickly and their axis is always rough to the touch. The lemma is about 7 millimeters long and at least the upper ones are awned. The glabrous, smooth glume is at most half as long as the spikelet, about as long as the lowest lemma and five- to seven-veined. The lemma, on the other hand, is five-nerved, about 5 to 8 millimeters long, elongated-lanceolate in shape and appears blunt on top. The awn is straight and up to 12 mm long. The two- veined palea is about as long as the lemma and long-elliptical in shape. The anthers are about 4 millimeters long.

The caryopses are about 3.5 millimeters long and 1 millimeter wide.

The number of chromosomes is 2n = 14. Tetraploid clans are also used in agricultural breeding.

Distribution and location

The Italian ryegrass originally comes from the South European-North African-North Asian region. It is native to Macaronesia, from the Mediterranean to the Himalayas and Central Asia and the Sahara. From here it has been spread by sowing as a valuable agricultural forage plant since the 18th century. As early as 1834 it was considered widespread in Great Britain. It is now naturalized almost everywhere in the temperate areas of the northern hemisphere in Europe , western Asia and parts of North America . It is also likely to be found as a neophyte in the temperate areas of Australia .

The Italian ryegrass spontaneously colonizes fresh, often nutrient-rich ruderal areas such as roadsides and debris areas. However, it also grows on ruderally influenced fresh meadows and on fields. In the Allgäu Alps, it rises up to 1920 meters above sea level.

Most occurrences, however, are based on targeted sowing in intensive agricultural grassland ( cultivated plant ). The Italian ryegrass is widespread from the plains to the mountain steps. It prefers base-rich , humus soils , but can also cope with moderately acidic limestone, marl or loam soils ; it prefers soils with pH values of 6 to 7 and is absent above pH 8. It grows on nutrient-rich (especially nitrogen-rich), fresh soils and avoids both drought and waterlogging.

Taxonomy

Lolium multiflorum was first published by Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck . A synonym for Lolium multiflorum Lam. is Lolium italicum A. Brown . The species is rich in shape and variety; various varieties have been bred for agricultural use, some of which can be distinguished morphologically. In the generic revision of Terrell this lists 128 synonyms .

The species forms hybrids with Lolium perenne , called hybrid ryegrass Lolium x hybridum Hausskn., Which are cultivated for agriculture.

use

The Italian ryegrass is used in sowing grassland and in park lawns. Annual cultivars in particular are used in forage cultivation. Perennial clans usually only survive in permanent grassland a few years after sowing and are displaced by competition from other types of grass if there is no plowing with reseeding, the plants very often die after flowering and fruit set. As a component of the Landsberger mixture , it is used for fodder production or as a previous crop.

The Italian ryegrass can be used as a suitable bioindicator for the detection of pollution. It is capable of enriching certain heavy metals in soils (such as cadmium and lead ) or air pollutants (such as hydrogen fluoride and sulfur dioxide ) ( bioaccumulation ) and thus demonstrating environmental pollution.

literature

  • Jürke Grau , Bruno P. Kremer, Bodo M. Möseler, Gerhard Rambold, Dagmar Triebel: Grasses. Sweet grasses, sour grasses, rushes and grass-like families in Europe (=  Steinbach's natural guide ). New, edit. Special edition edition. Mosaik, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-576-10702-9 .
  • Hans Joachim Conert: Parey's grass book. Recognize and determine the grasses of Germany . Parey, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-8263-3327-6 .
  • Dietmar Aichele, Heinz-Werner Schwegler: Our grasses. Sweet grasses, sour grasses, rushes . 11th edition. Kosmos, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-440-07613-X .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Erich Oberdorfer : Plant-sociological excursion flora for Germany and neighboring areas . 8th edition. Stuttgart, Verlag Eugen Ulmer, 2001. ISBN 3-8001-3131-5 . Page 231.
  2. ↑ a b c A. R. Beddows (1973): Lolium Multiflorum Lam. (Biological Flora of the British Isles). Journal of Ecology 61 (2): 587-600.
  3. ↑ Rafaël Govaerts (Ed.): Lolium multiflorum. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved November 11, 2016.
  4. ↑ Erhard Dörr, Wolfgang Lippert : Flora of the Allgäu and its surroundings. Volume 1, IHW, Eching 2001, ISBN 3-930167-50-6 , p. 210.
  5. ^ Edward E. Terrell (1968): A taxonomic revision of the genus Lolium. Technical Bulletin of the US Department of Agriculture No. 1392, 65pp. online at Google Books
  6. ^ Willfried Nobel, Reinhard Kostka-Rick, Harald Bartholmess: Recording of vehicle-related metal immissions with bio-indicators on a motorway. In: Hazardous substances - keeping the air clean, Volume 68, No. 6, 2008, pp. 245–250 (PDF).

Web links

Commons : Italian ryegrass ( Lolium multiflorum )  - album with pictures, videos and audio files