Vascular Plants of the Gila Wilderness
Presented in Association with the
Western New Mexico University Department
of Natural Sciences
Secale cereale Linnaeus
(Rye)
Family: Poaceae
Status: Exotic
Synonyms:
None
Secale cereale is a tall exotic cultivated plant. It seems to have shown up in Silver City on Rt. 180 in fill dirt at the roadside brought into town in 2009 during an extensive roadway project. These annual plants have a single two flowered spikelet at each node. The lemmas are awned. The prevailing opinion was that this grass would not be able to reseed itself and appear back in the same place the next year. Here we are in 2010, and the grass is back!
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Secale cereale, photo Russ Kleinman, Silver City, May 10, 2009
Secale cereale, photo Russ Kleinman, Silver City, May 10, 2009
Secale cereale, closeup of spike, photo Russ Kleinman, Silver City, May 10, 2009
Secale cereale, closeup of spikelet, photo Russ Kleinman, Silver City, May 10, 2009
Secale cereale, growing from seed for a second season in the same location, photo Russ Kleinman, Silver City, March 20, 2010