or other plant parts. Giant cutgrass appears to require fluctuating water or to be root-linked to 

 plants that have fluctuating water which exposes the soil surface to air. 



Cuttings with rooted nodes potted at the Louisiana Marshlands Plant Materials Laboratory had 

 80% survival and grew 0.6 m in height after two months. Unrooted nodes had 50% survival and 

 grew 0.3 m in height. 



Fifty-one collections of giant cutgrass were taken from Georgia, Texas, and Louisiana. These 

 were established in ten-plant rod rows at the Louisiana Marshlands Plant Materials Laboratory. 

 Observations conducted during the last two years (1986 and 1987) show that the mineral soils have 

 a potential to produce up to 400 nodes per 3-m row and up to 200 nodes per 3-m row on organic 

 soils. Thus, materials available for vegetative propagation can be readily grown in relatively small 

 impoundments. 



CONCLUSIONS 



Vegetative propagation of giant cutgrass has a potential for combating coastal erosion on fresh 

 marsh sites in Louisiana. 



Site selection for plantings is critical. Those sites with fluctuating water levels that leave the soil 

 exposed to aeration have the best chance of stand establishment. 



Transplanting plants from rooted stolons is logistically better than transplanting clumps of plants. 



Stolons may be rooted in pots or nursery impoundments for future transplanting to selected sites. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



The authors wish to thank the Louisiana Land and Exploration Corporation, Continental Land 

 and Fur Corporation, and Tenneco-LaTerre Corporation for their assistance in conducting plant 

 material field trials. 



LITERATURE CITED 



Hitchcock, A.S. 1950. Manual of the grasses of the United States. USDA miscellaneous 

 publication no. 200. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington DC. 563 pp. 



Ferry, J.F., and H.S. Ward. 1959. Fundamentals of plant physiology. MacMillan Company, New 

 York. 288 pp. 



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