Lolium multiflorum Lam.   =Lolium perenne ssp. multiflorum   Poaceae (Grass Family)   Europe   Italian Ryegrass

                            March Photo          

Plant Characteristics:  Annual or biennial, with simple erect stems, 4-8 dm., generally glabrous; lvs. inrolled when young; infl. to 20 cm. long, terminal, flat; ligule 1-3 mm.; spikelets 10-20 mm. long, of 8-14 florets, solitary, sessile, placed edgewise to the continuous rachis, one edge fitting the alternate notches; rachilla disarticulating above the glumes and between the florets; first glume wanting except on the terminal spikelet, the 2d outward, 3-5 nerved, equaling or exceeding the 2d floret; lemma convex, 5-7 nerved, broader and softer than in ssp. perenne, usually awned.

Habitat:  Common in Calif., especially in the Coast Ranges, occurring in waste places and along roadsides.  June-Aug.

Name:  Latin, lolium, an old name for darnel (rye-grass) and perennis, throughout the year.  (Jaeger 143,188).  Latin, multus, many and floris, flower.  (Jaeger 159,103).  Multiflorum, many flowered.

General:  Very common in the study area.  Photographed in the North Star Flats, in the Delhi Area, Santa Ana Heights and along Back Bay Dr. (my comments).      Adventive and widely planted as a lawn grass, after burns, etc.  Apparently with many strains and horticultural forms and intergrading with ssp. perenne.  Vasek and Ferguson studying awned and awnless plants in various populations, found separation into two ssp. by the traditional characters was impossible.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 979-80).     Lolium spp. was introduced during the mission period.  (Heizer & Elsasser 38).      Agencies concerned with managing chaparral lands often seed recently burned sites with non-native herbs, Lolium perenne (ryegrass) in particular.  "Type conversion" programs may seed in order to produce fuel loads sufficient for repeat burns in successive years, which will replace chaparral with grassland.  More commonly, the justification for seeding is that species such as L. perenne are thought to establish a better plant cover and reduce soil erosion.  There is evidence that this practice is having negative effects on the natural regeneration of chaparral.  One of the disastrous effects of this form of manipulation is that the ryegrass readily outcompetes native herbs.  The negative effects of this are practical as well as aesthetic.  Not only are wildflower displays greatly diminished on artificially seeded sites, but the soil-stored seed crops of herbs are diminished for the next fire.  Under natural conditions the post-fire flora does a good job of revegetating the landscape after a fire, and it costs nothing.  Artificial seeding, however, has disturbed this system.  Ryegrass replaces the native flora, but its seeds are short lived and are not retained in the soil.  (Keeley, Jon E. and Sterling C.  "Chaparral and Wildfires".  FREMONTIA, A Journal of the California Native Plant Society.  October 1986 pp. 20,21).        For additional information on post-fire plant species see Bloomeria crocea, Phacelia tanacetifolia, Eriophyllum confertiflorum, and Lotus scoparius.  (my comment).       Lolium species have been known to cause hay fever and asthma.  (Fuller 382).       Lolium perene, or English ryegrass, was the first meadow grass to be cultivated in Europe as a distinct segregated species, the meadows and pastures formerly being native species.  This and L. multiflorum, Italian ryegrass, are probably the most important of the European forage grasses.  Both species are used in the United States to a limited extent for meadow, pasture, and lawn.  (Hitchcock 274).      About 10 species in temperate parts of Eurasia.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 979).

Text Ref:  Hickman, Ed. 1270; Munz, Flora So. Calif. 979; Robbins et al. 87. 

Photo Ref:  May 7 83 # 24; Mar 1 84 # 9; Mar 2-April 1 84 # 23.

Identity: by R. De Ruff, confirmed by F. Roberts.

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 51

Have plant specimen.

Last edit 4/18/03.

                                             May Photo