BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Calamovilfa longifolia | Prairie Sandreed 



GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS : 
Prairie sandreed is a drought-resistant, native, long-lived, warm-season
perennial grass that grows 2 to 6 feet (0.6-1.8 m) tall.  It is sod
forming and has stout, scaly, creeping rhizomes [20,23,24,43].  Rhizomes
are tough and wiry, 0.08 inch (2-3 mm) in diameter, abundantly branched,
and lie 2 to 4 inches (5-10 cm) beneath the soil surface.  Rhizome
lengths vary from 1 inch (2.5 cm) to 1 foot (31 cm) [36].  They are
covered by long scaley leaves and tipped by sharply pointed bud scales.
The roots descend mostly vertically and arise from the coarse rhizomes.
Where plants have been subjected to shifting sand, roots and rhizomes
may be intermixed in dense mats to a depth of 2 to 3 feet (0.6-.9 m)
[52].  Roots have been described as "wiry", with diameters ranging from
0.03 inch (0.8 mm) to 0.3 inches (8 mm) [12,52].  Root depths vary
greatly, but the species is generally considered to be deep rooted.  In
Saskatchewan, maximum root depth was noted at 4.5 to 6.0 feet (1.4-1.8
m), with the deepest rooted plants occurring in sandy soil [12]; in
Nebraska, root depths were from 4 to 10 feet (1.2-3.0 m) [45,52].


RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM : 
   Geophyte


REGENERATION PROCESSES : 
Although prairie sandreed uses both sexual and vegetative means of
repdroduction throughout its range, vegetative reproduction is most
prevalent.  Tolstead [46] reported that prairie sandreed propagates
almost entirely from rhizomes.  He noted that one to five new rhizomes
developed per culm during May and June.  These remained dormant until
the following spring when a single culm and new roots developed from
each.  Flowering occurred from July to September, but seed formation was
confined to plants growing in disturbed sites where moisture was more
abundant.  For seeds that do develop, germination probably occurs the
following spring.  This delayed germination is due to the need for cold
temperatures for good germination percentages.  Tolstead [45] noted that
86 percent of prairie sandreed seeds germinated within 4 days after a
4-month cold storage treatment in moist sand, but after 20 days only
17.6 percent of seeds stored indoors at 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21 deg C)
germinated.  Cold-sratification, however, can be much shorter;
germination occurring within 28 days after a 2-week prechilling period
has been reported [50].  Seedling vigor appears to be only fair [33].


SITE CHARACTERISTICS : 
Prairie sandreed most commonly occurs on sandy-textured soils on upland
sites in the plains grasslands and prairies east of the Rocky Mountains
[39,41,43,47,50].  Sandy-textured soil appears to be the most important
factor determining the importance of this species in the plant
commmunity.  Prairie sandreed is very drought-resistant.  It is
intolerant of spring flooding and high water tables, and only slightly
tolerant of acidic or alkaline soils [11,49,50].  Although this grass is
common on sandhills and sand prairies where it is evenly distributed and
often a dominant species, it is also locally common on deep,
medium-textured soils on overflow, silty, and limpy upland sites
[14,41].  On these soils, it is often found in nearly pure stands with
distinct boundaries between prairie sandreed colonies and the
surrounding vegetation.  The soil under these pure stands has a higher
water infiltration rate than the soil under the surrounding vegetation
[1].  Prairie sandreed, with its vigorous growth form and large amounts
of standing dead material and litter, apparently intercepts the rain
more efficiently than the smaller surrounding vegetation.  Prairie
sandreed is only occasionally found on clay soil or loess [43].  In
Nebraska, prairie sandreed is found primarily on rolling sandhills where
its growth is evenly distributed in the vegetation stand, but on finer
textured soils it tends to grow in large open clumps [41].  In western
North Dakota, prairie sandreed is found as a dominant species on
uniformly sandy soils with the sand content reaching depths of 5 to 6
feet (1.5-1.8 m) [22].

Although prairie sandreed occurs over a wide variety of precipitation
zones, its optimal performance is in the 16- to 20-inch (44-54 cm) mean
annual precipitation zone [50].  In Montana, prairie sandreed occurs
primarily in areas receiving 10 to 14 inches (25-35 cm) mean annual
precipitation [35].  At the other extreme, in Nebraska prairie sandreed
occurs in areas receiving 24 inches (61 cm) mean annual precipitation
[38].  It is evident that prairie sandreed occurs in higher mean annual
precipitation zones than 24 inches, especially in the eastern portion of
its range, but it is probably restricted to sites with sandy soil
texture.  The Nebraska site was on choppy sandhills, where the deep,
loose, fine, sandy soil structure allowed for rapid internal drainage.
This loose, "droughty" soil type seems to be more influential in prairie
sandreed's distribution than is precipitation.  This is supported by
Barnes and Harrison [5], who observed that prairie sandreed experiences
greater water stress on finer textured soils than on dune sands.
Prairie sandreed is a deep-rooted grass and can utilize the water stored
in the deep sands due to percolation.  On finer textured soils,
shallow-rooted species effectively extract the surface-stored moisture,
leaving little for the deeper rooted grasses.  Prairie sandreed cannot
effectively compete with shallow-rooted plants on this soil type.

In the Great Plains, prairie sandreed is common up to 2,000 feet (610 m)
in elevation, and in Rocky Mountain river valleys, it occurs up to about
6,000 feet (1,829 m) [50].  Prairie sandreed probably becomes less
common above 6,000 feet (1,829 m).  Elevational ranges for some western
states are as follows [13,34,54]:

from 3,500 to 9,800 feet (1,067-2,987 m) in CO
     4,800 to 5,300 feet (1,463-1,615 m) in MT
      750 to 2,900 feet (229-884 m) in ND
     3,800 to 7,800 feet (1,158-2,377 m) in WY


SUCCESSIONAL STATUS : 
Obligate Climax Species

Prairie sandreed is considered a climax or late seral species when found
on dry upland prairie and plains grassland sites.  It is an indicator of
climax vegetation types on sandy soils, where it often obtains dominance
or codominance.  Although it has effective sand-binding properties, it
is slow in invading sand blowouts, and follows grasses such as sand
bluestem, blowout grass (Redfieldia flexuosa), and muhly (Mulenbergia
spp.) [45].  Its drought tolerance allows it to replace bluestems in the
Nebraska Sandhills during extended drought periods [41].


SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT : 
Prairie sandreed is a warm-season grass that generally begins rapid
growth in the late spring.  A fair amount of growth occurs in the
summer, and only a small amount in the fall.  In South Dakota prairie
sandreed was observed to begin leaf growth in mid-May and attain a
maximum leaf height of 17.5 inches (44.5 cm) by late July [19].  Plants
remain green until frost occurs [41,45,50].  Flowering occurs from June
to August in Montana; from July to September in Nebraska and North
Dakota; and from August to September in Wyoming [12,42].

The timing of different phenological stages of two prairie sandreed
cultivars (number of days after June 15 to reach a phenological stage)
follows [34]:

                           Phenological Stage      
                     1    2    3    4    5    6
      Cultivar
      'ND-95'       30   50   54   57   115  121
      'Goshen'      29   50   54   57   115  121

Phenological stages:
  1.  First emergence of inflorescence, 10 culms or more
  2.  First anthesis, 10 culms or more
  3.  Fifty percent emergence of the inflorescence
  4.  Fifty percent anthesis
  5.  First seed mature
  6.  Fifty percent seed mature

 
Both cultivars reached 50 percent seed maturity by mid-October.

Related categories for Species: Calamovilfa longifolia | Prairie Sandreed