ARS | Publication request: Registration of 'Homestead' Canada Wildrye

Submitted to: Journal of Plant Registrations
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: December 10, 2009
Publication Date: April 19, 2010
Repository URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10113/42996
Citation: Vogel, K.P., Mitchell, R.B., Baltensperger, D.D., Johnson, K.D., Carlson, I.T. 2010. Registration of 'Homestead' Canada Wildrye. Journal of Crop Registrations. 4:123-126.

Interpretive Summary: The Canada wildrye cultivar, Homestead, was developed cooperatively by USDA-ARS and the University of Nebraska and was released in 2008 for use in the Great Plains and the Midwest USA. Canada wildrye (Elymus canadensis) is a cool-season grass that is native to the grasslands of North America. It was developed using the Ecotype Selection Breeding System from a collection made in a remnant prairie in Eastern Nebraska USA. Homestead is adapted to the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 5 of the tallgrass prairie ecoregion of the Midwest, USA. When grown in its area of adaptation, it produces more forage than the previously available cultivar of the species and its forage has higher in vitro dry matter digestibility than another adapted experimental strain to which it was compared in sward forage yield trials. Its primary use will be as a native cool-season grass component of conservation, roadside, and grassland seeding mixtures.

Technical Abstract: ‘Homestead’ ( PI 655522) Canada wildrye (Elymus canadensis L.) was developed cooperatively by USDA-ARS and the University of Nebraska and was released in 2008 for use in the Great Plains and the Midwest USA. It was developed using the Ecotype Selection Breeding System from a collection made in a remnant prairie in Eastern Nebraska USA. Homestead is adapted to Plant Adaptation Region (PAR) 251-5 (Temperate Prairie Parkland - Plant Hardiness Zone 5) which is its origin and in which it has been evaluated in both space-transplanted and sward trials. This region is equivalent to USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 5 of the tallgrass prairie ecoregion of the Midwest, USA. When grown in its area of adaptation, it produces more forage than the previously available cultivar of the species and its forage has higher in vitro dry matter digestibility than another adapted experimental strain to which it was compared in sward forage yield trials. Its primary use will be as a native cool-season grass component of conservation, roadside, and grassland seeding mixtures.