Leymus racemosus
Environmental Weed (2024)
Common names
Siberian lyme grass
Biostatus
Exotic
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Grasses
Detailed description
Perennial grass with stout rhizomes and very robust tufts to 150 cm. Culm stout and erect 50–110 cm tall. Leaf-sheath yellowish and almost glabrous. Leaf-blade 10–65 cm × 4.5–16 mm, strongly ribbed and almost glabrous. Flowering spike 25–40 cm stiff erect and tapered. Seed 6.5 × 2 mm.
Similar taxa
Can be separated from L. arenarius by the spikelets in clusters of 3-5, and the glumes without any hairs.
Habitat
Terrestrial: coastal dunes, foreshore, sandy places and waste land.
Conservation status
Not applicable
Detailed taxonomy
Family
Poaceae
Ecology
Year naturalised
1895
Origin
Eurasia
Reason for introduction
Agricultural
Life cycle
Reproduces by seed and rhizomes. Dispersed by wind.
Other information
Environmental Weed (2024)
This plant is named in a list of 386 environmental weeds in New Zealand 2024 prepared by DOC. 759 candidate species were considered for inclusion on this new comprehensive list of environmental weeds in New Zealand. The species considered were drawn from published lists of weed species, lists of plants that must be reported or managed by law if observed, existing national and regional programmes and agreements for pest management, and species already managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC). Candidate species were then assessed to see if they were fully naturalised and whether they have more than minor impacts in natural ecosystems. Read the full report here.
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
LEYRAC