30 



CIKCULAR 178, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Hgens)^ mutton grass or Fendler bluegrass [Poa fendleriana) ^ moun- 

 tain muhly {Muhlenbergia inontaiia)^ Porter bromegrass {Bromus 

 porteri)^ side oats grama {Bouteloua curtipenduJa) ^ and spike muhly 

 {Muhlenbergia wrightil). All these species have been tried out in 

 a limited way at the Fort Valley branch of the Southwestern Forest 

 and Kange Experiment Station on the Coconino Plateau in northern 

 Arizona. The original sowings were made in 1913, and the results 

 were noted from year to year through 1926. The seeded areas were 

 not grazed throughout the period. 



The trials were made in a typical bunch-grass type under western 

 yellow pine and high in elevation for blue grama or spike muhly. 

 Mountain muhly, beardless pine grass, and Arizona fescue grow nat- 

 urally in the type. In general those species which are naturally more 

 common in the immediate vicinity of the experimental plots have 

 shown the most i^romise. 



Mountain muhly did the best of all the species experimented with, 

 seeding satisfactorily and maintaining a good stand of about 50 per 

 cent ground cover. The older clumps in 1926 were dying at the cen- 

 ter but growing outward along the periphery. 



Beardless pine grass seeded well, but after 13 years the stand was 

 rather thin. This species proved less aggressive than mountain 

 muhly, which has invaded its areas. 



Arizona fescue came in well, reached average height, but has had 

 rather light seed crops and has thinned materially. 



Blue grama and spike muhly started out as a few scattered clumps ; 

 the grama increased hardly at all. 



Squirreltail grass seeded well at the start but gradually died out, 

 and there were very few specimens of it left at the last observation. 



Porter or nodding bromegrass came in well at the start and invaded 

 adjacent range here and there, but only scattered plants survived. 



The other species either failed to come in satisfactorily or died out 

 readily. The chief obstacles to reseeding many of these native south- 

 western forage species are the apparently low viability of seed and 

 the difficulty of obtaining seed. The rate of germination of the seed 

 is shown in Table 2. 



Table 2. — Rate of germination of 11 native southwestern grasses, 1913 and 1915 



Species 



Arizona fescue 



Beardless pine grass 



Black dropseed 



Blue grama 



Deer grass 



Mountain muhly... 



P.d. 

 40.6 



8.4 

 19.8 

 3.6 



17.2 

 34.8 



P.d. 



13.4 



Species 



Mutton grass or Fendler blue 



grass . 



Porter or nodding bromegrass 



Side oats grama . 



Spike muhly 



Squirreltail grass 



1913 



P. d. 



4.6 

 69.8 



6.8 

 32.8 

 79.2 



1915 



P.d. ■ 

 34.0 

 83.6 



With the exception of squirreltail grass and Porter bromegrass, the 

 rate of germination in the two tests was low, indicating that much 

 of the seed was not fertile. 



In general, artificial reseeding tests with native and cultivated 

 plants on the range in southern Arizona have thus far been distinct 

 failures, except perhaps where there is summer flooding of the areas 

 (5, 10, 11, 3k). 



