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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Logan, Utah » Forage and Range Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #421072
Research Project: Improved Plant Genetic Resources and Methods to ensure Resilient and Productive Rangelands, Pastures, and Turf Landscapes

Location: Forage and Range Research

Title: 'USDA-Accelerate' creeping foxtail, a new creeping foxtail with increased seedling vigor

Author
item Robins, Joseph
item Buffham, James

Submitted to: Journal of Plant Registrations
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/15/2025
Publication Date: 3/31/2025
Citation: Robins, J.G., Buffham, J.R. 2025. 'USDA-Accelerate' creeping foxtail, a new creeping foxtail with increased seedling vigor. Journal of Plant Registrations. 19(1). Article e20429. https://doi.org/10.1002/plr2.20429.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/plr2.20429

Interpretive Summary: The USDA-ARS has released ‘USDA-Accelerate’, a cultivar of creeping foxtail. USDA-Accelerate provides an improved creeping foxtail for more rapidly establishing forage grass on wet meadows. This release enhances the USDA-ARS initiative to provide advanced perennial grass cultivars tailored for animal forage and soil stabilization in the western United States, positioning USDA-Accelerate as a vital resource for revegetation efforts in challenging mountain and wet meadow ecosystems where traditional perennial grasses struggle to establish due to inadequate seedling vigor.

Technical Abstract: The USDA-ARS announces the release of ‘USDA-Accelerate’ (Reg. no. ____, PI ____) creeping foxtail (Alopecurus arundinaceus Poir.).' USDA-Accelerate is a creeping foxtail with excellent seedling vigor (emergence from deep seeding percentage and rate) and good herbage dry mass and nutritive value. Wet meadows require plant materials with excellent seedling vigor and tolerance to consistently wet conditions. Creeping foxtail does well under these wet conditions but lacks the seedling vigor to consistently establish under the competition from other plant materials on these sites. We developed USDA-Accelerate as a Syn1 cultivar derived from two cycles of selection from 63 genotypes from four germplasm accessions and the cultivar ‘Garrison’. Under multi-environment trialing, USDA-Accelerate had 140% greater total emergence, 142% greater emergence rate, and similar herbage dry mass and nutritive value when compared to Garrison. This release supports the USDA-ARS effort to supply improved perennial grass cultivars for animal feed and soil stabilization for the western U. S. USDA-Accelerate will be an important component of revegetation projects on mountain and wet meadows in this region where perennial grass establishment is limited by weak seedling vigor.