320 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1953 



GRASSES 



Although the number of species of grasses and grasslike plants 

 totals several hundred, those that predominate in seminatural grass- 

 lands in the East are remarkably few. Swamp grasses form a group 

 that can be studied separately. They include not only true grasses 

 such as Calamagrostis canadensis and Arundinaria tecta^ but also many 

 juncuses, sedges, and cy peruses. Such plant covers, not areally im- 

 portant, may grow 4 to 6 or more feet high, and although they can 

 resist forest invasion they are more difficult to traverse than some 

 shrub covers. 



Among the upland grasses, Axonopus compressus is unique. It oc- 

 curs abundantly in only a limited area of the Southeast, where it in- 

 vades readily after disturbance if the land is being pastured, and pro- 

 duces a dense lawnlike turf as long as the pasturing is continued. In 

 this respect, it is ideal for rights-of-way. Many of the ungrazed south- 

 eastern grasslands are mixtures of Aristida (three-awns), Sporoholus 

 (dropseeds),/S'i5/p(Z (needle grasses) fmdi Andropogon (beardgr asses). 

 Throughout the Northeast and Central East, predominating species 

 include the following : 



Panicnm clandestinum and P. latifoUum 



(panics) 

 Danthonia spicata (poverty grass) 

 Carex pcnsylvanica (sedge) 



Agrostis alha (redtop) 

 Festuca rubra (red fescue) 

 Anthoxanthum odoratum (June grass) 

 Andropogon scoparius (bunch grass) 

 Andropogon virginicus (broom sedge) 



Of these, the two panics, of similar site requirements, form a dense 

 grassland, knee-high, that should successfully keep out tree seedlings 

 but is not too easy to walk through. All the other grassland types are 

 low and open and successfully serve as a seedbed for the invading trees 

 mentioned above, whenever parent trees are present. It has long been 

 known to foresters and other field biologists that certain trees, espe- 

 cially pines, will invade these grasslands, and such knowledge has con- 

 ditioned their silvicultural practices. Furthermore, the value of such 

 grasslands for wildlife is extremely low. They are grazed for a very 

 short time in spring by deer, and the insect populations are needed 

 for the chicks of game birds, though this factor is seldom limiting 

 because grassy patches are almost always scattered through the "shrub- 

 land'' types. A few species of grasses produce important seed crops, 

 but these have not yet been seen to predominate in right-of-way 

 grasslands. Contemporary scientific knowledge certainly does not 

 recommend these grasslands to the utility corporations as ideal for 

 their brush-control problems or as satisfying the needs of wildlife. 



It should perhaps be added that certain lands give no indication of 

 having the potentiality of bearing any grassy cover. This is true for 

 certain acid, steep, or rocky slopes. In these instances, no amount of 

 brush spraying will create a grassland. 



