[APWG] Utah petri dish tests

[Addsum-Tony Frates]

Craig and others:  thank you for this dialogue.

To in part answer your questions Craig, see this image, taken today:

http://www.unps.org/olyhills/secalearea081509.jpg

So this is in the Salt Lake valley foothills on the east bench, elevation approx. 4,880 
feet, photo is looking basically to the south, so this is an open northish facing slope.  
(Secale cereale seems equally happy on different orientations/slopes.)

There are much worse i.e. more  dense stands than this along the central Wasatch 
Front, but this example will do and it would be a good place perhaps for a test plot.

So as you can see, there are some native plants nearby but soon the cereal rye 
spreads everywhere and will surround and grow up and around the shrubs/trees and 
into the oak as shown here (and essentially crowds everything else out):

http://www.unps.org/olyhills/secaleinvades081509.jpg

(this picture is in fact in the area "above" the first annotated picture)

So to answer your question, near the monoculture are a few Indian ricegrass (Utah's 
state grass!), a few Sand dropseed, and a larger number of Western wheatgrass 
(which tends to form large stands).   Not far away there are also several other native 
grass species including Bluebunch wheatgrass,  Needle 'n thread, Purple Three-awn, 
Sheep fescue and Great Basin wildrye (and of course a number of other non-native 
grass species as well).    And there are a few areas where these grasses dominate 
and the Secale cereale is to some degree being held at bay.   The most dominant 
grasses in the immediate area is Sand dropseed (at least some of which might have 
come in through prior reveg/restoration efforts so I don't know how "pure" it is) 
followed by Western wheatgrass and Bluebunch wheatgrass (some of which may 
have been introduced).   

Linaria dalmatica is a problem and grows near/at the top of the area depicted but is 
being somewhat held in check through regular hand pulling (like the cereal rye, it will 
grow into the Gambel's oak and becomes difficult to remove other than early in the 
year).  So the bigger concern in this particular area is the cereal rye.

So, focusing on the cereal rye:

Concerning the alleopathic properties of cereale rye, I mentioned that simply 
because it would seem that might thwart seeding/seedling efforts (?).

Today I collected some seed from all the available native grasses in the immediate 
area (too late for Indian ricegrass).

So:  

(1)  How big of a test plot do you suggest?

(2)  And within the test plot, how exactly and when would you recommend that the 
seeds be planted?   And plant those without attempting to remove any of the cereale 
rye?   Include Great Basin wildrye in the mix?    While easy to remove, a clump of 
cereal rye once pulled does leave a pretty big divot and because cereal rye fruits are 
heavy, that probably makes for a nice spot for new cereale rye plants to grow in.   Or 
plant the native grass seeds in holes left by removed clumps or perhaps that is a 
variable to experiment with? 


Thanks again, and thanks to Wayne and others for this ongoing discussion.

Tony





Date sent:      	Fri, 14 Aug 2009 23:18:21 -0000 (UTC)
From:           	"Craig Dremann - Redwood City Seed Company" <Craig at astreet.com>
To:             	apwg at lists.plantconservation.org
Subject:        	[APWG] Utah petri dish tests

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Dear Tony and All,

Thanks for your email.

============
Tony wrote: Will this work with an allelopathic species like Secale
cereale which has formed dense stands along what is left of the foothills
of the central Wasatch Front in Utah?   Will the native grasses even be
able to get a foothold absent removal of the cereal rye?

Reply: Cereal rye is exactly what Dr. Liu was studying in his two papers
written in the Journal of Chemical Ecology in 1994 and 1995.  What he
discovered, is the drier the conditions that the cereal rye grows in, the
more allelopathic chemicals it produces, which makes sense.

The question for the area where the rye is growing in your area---where
are the native grass seeds going to come from, and what species are
currently growing amongst the cereal rye?  If it is mature Great Basin
wild rye, it is unlikely that you will get seedlings without a lot of
effort, but if it Bluebunch wheatgrass, there is a good chance.

Bluebunch wheatgrass is what is in the pictures,  growing to the horizon,
and cheatgrass-free, at http://www.ecoseeds.com/greatbasin.html  I would
try some tiny sown test plots of various native grasses amongst the cereal
rye, and see what you can do, at a lot of different sowing rates.

========

Tony wrote: We are also inundated with two other particularly out of
control plant species along our foothills (besides all of the normal ones
and too many others to list) including Linaria dalmatica and Euphorbia
myrsinities, both of which seem to like to grow over/under/in everything. 
How do we remove these from rock crevice habitats?

Reply:  What would normally grow in those rock crevices?  Probably some
native bunchgrass?  Our Western native bunchgrasses have a remarkably
strong effect against weeds, especially the broadleaf weeds.  Perhaps
Indian Ricegrass, Thurber's Stipa if they are local to your area, or a
local native Poa might do the trick?   I would try some tiny test plots in
the rock crevices with some of the native-rock-crevice grasses.

============

Tony wrote: We do have a few precious places with relatively intact
ecosystems where these weeds advance and invade nonetheless, i.e. a
healthy ecosystem (contrary what was traditionally taught) does not
necessarily seem to, sadly, be a defense against many of these invaders.

Reply:  In doing my 1997 Megatransect at
http://www.ecoseeds.com/megatransect.html from California to South Dakota
and back, I also noted, what I called Pristine native areas, compared to
the rest of the cow and sheep-chewed West.

I call those Pristine relics, the Sacred-Places, that have been able to
withstand everything that we have dished out to them, so they deserve a
modicum of respect, able to survive our land-tsunami-like onslaught.

However, there is always something in the ecosystem puzzle missing in
those areas, anywhere where the Pristine relics occur in the USA in the
lower 48, and those holes in the puzzle are exactly where the weeds find a
place to get in.   The weeds fill an empty niche.

For example, on the Shaw property, the 4-6 species of native clovers are
missing, which allows the exotic clovers to fill that ecosystem vacancy,
until Mr. Shaw is able to reintroduce the native clovers back onto his
land.

It is not enough for an ecosystem understory to be relatively intact. 
That is like the spark plugs in your car engine were relatively put in,
maybe at the right number?

Your car needs exactly the right number of spark plugs, torqued into the
engine at the correct number of foot-pounds--and the ecosystem understory
also has to be precisely fitted together to function properly, to hold its
own against the weeds.

That is why we need professionals in the future, who can survey land, and
be able to give us the ecosystem understory recipe, of how much cover of
what native species we need on the land, to hold the ecosystem together,
against the weeds.

The proper percentage of cover of each native species, within any
non-riparian ecosystem, is a mathematical constant.

Sincerely,  Craig Dremann (650) 325-7333



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