WINTER GRASSES OF CHAPEL HTLL 



BY W. C. COKER 



Perennial Rye Grass {Lolkitu perenne). 



Italian Rye Grass (Lolium muUiflorunv^^L. italicum). 



These two grasses can scarcely be distinguished from 

 each other except in flower, and are so alike that we may 

 treat them as one. They are short lived perennials in this 

 state. 



They may be distinguished by their deep green, shining 

 leaves and bright-red or purplish-red leaf bases. They most 

 resemble blue grass when young, but blue grass is not shining 

 and lacks the red base. 



Wherever lawn mixtures have been sown these grasses 

 usually escape to the roadsides, walks, open places, and gar- 

 dens, and there form one of the most conspicuous elements 

 in our winter grass growth. They do not form a part of the 

 old established lawns or pastures. 



Rye grass is one of the constituents of most lawn mix- 

 tures, and we notice that in lawns here it is one of the three 

 or four species that survive the first summer to any extent. 

 It is also obvious that usually not one-tenth of the original 

 stand goes through the summer. Of this remaining one- 

 tenth the rye grass often forms almost one-half. The other 

 half is mostly red top, sheep fescue or red fescue, and in 

 shaded places blue grass. 



The rye grasses germinate quickly and grow oif rapidly 

 and thus serve to give a green effect the first winter before 

 the slower grasses have made much show. They begin to 

 die out the first summer, and after two or three years are 

 usually quite gone. 



Low SrEAR Grass (Poa annua). 



This odd little grass is what is called a winter annual, 

 sprouting in fall and flourishing through the cold weather, 

 then dying out completely at the begiiming of warm weather. 

 The exact time of its sprouting and dying depends entirely 



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