What is happening to this grass? - Ask Extension
Hi there I am seeing this happen on the heads of different tall grasses all around the neighborhood. It looks like something is burrowing into or eat...
Knowledgebase
What is happening to this grass? #833438
Asked June 02, 2023, 5:30 PM EDT
Hi there I am seeing this happen on the heads of different tall grasses all around the neighborhood. It looks like something is burrowing into or eating (?) the head, leaving small yellow-green bits of the plant hanging off the plant. Can you explain what might be causing this? Thank you.
Arapahoe County Colorado
Expert Response
Hello there and thank you for using Ask Extension.
That grass appears to be winter rye/cereal rye (Secale cereale). It is an often used cover crop. Here is some information about winter rye from UC Davis.
https://sarep.ucdavis.edu/covercrop/cerealrye
In the upper right corner of this web page are a series of photos of the rye. If you scroll through them, you will find a photo of the winter rye in flower. Those yellow protuberances are the anthers of the flowering winter rye. So, what you are seeing is normal. This is the rye in flower.
Here is a very technical article from University of California, but the photos also show the anthers on the florescence of the grass.
https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=55532
If you'd like to learn more about the parts of grasses, check out this web page from the University of Minnesota.
https://open.lib.umn.edu/nativegrasses/chapter/1-1-parts-of-the-plant/
Now you can impress your neighbors with a bit of trivia.
Have a good summer.
That grass appears to be winter rye/cereal rye (Secale cereale). It is an often used cover crop. Here is some information about winter rye from UC Davis.
https://sarep.ucdavis.edu/covercrop/cerealrye
In the upper right corner of this web page are a series of photos of the rye. If you scroll through them, you will find a photo of the winter rye in flower. Those yellow protuberances are the anthers of the flowering winter rye. So, what you are seeing is normal. This is the rye in flower.
Here is a very technical article from University of California, but the photos also show the anthers on the florescence of the grass.
https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=55532
If you'd like to learn more about the parts of grasses, check out this web page from the University of Minnesota.
https://open.lib.umn.edu/nativegrasses/chapter/1-1-parts-of-the-plant/
Now you can impress your neighbors with a bit of trivia.
Have a good summer.
