Black Bent

redtop
meadow redtop

More info for the terms: cover, fire management, seed

Redtop is preferred nesting cover for prairie chickens. They began
using redtop, grown for seed in Illinois and Missouri, when the native
prairie habitat became scarce [60]. See FIRE MANAGEMENT for further
discussion of redtop management for prairie chickens.

More info for the term: cool-season

Redtop is an introduced, perennial, rhizomatous, cool-season,
sod-forming grass with erect, stout, stems growing 2 to 4 feet (0.6-1.2
m) tall. The panicle is 4 to 8 inches (10-20 cm) long and notably
suffused with purplish-red. Lemmas are rarely awned [22,29]. Rhizomes
are less than 10 inches (25 cm) long [28] and are generally shallow
[27]. Rhizomes have been reported to occur to a depth of 6 inches (15
cm) [18]. Redtop apparently intergrades with creeping bentgrass; redtop
has mostly erect culms and rhizomes, and creeping bentgrass has mostly
decumbent, stoloniferous culms.

Redtop, native to Europe, has been introduced throughout temperate North
America as a pasture grass. It occurs from Newfoundland south to the
mountains of northern Georgia and Alabama, west to California, and north to
Alaska. It is apparently uncommon or absent from the warm, humid
regions of the Gulf Coast and from the desert regions of the Southwest
[15,22,28,33]].

More info for the terms: fire regime, natural, seed

Redtop is fairly resilient to fire because of its rhizomes and buried
seed. Most natural fires in redtop stands probably occur in the fall
when the grass has dried out.

FIRE REGIMES :
Find fire regime information for the plant communities in which this
species may occur by entering the species name in the FEIS home page under
"Find FIRE REGIMES".

More info for the terms: cover, duff, forbs

Redtop has been seeded onto burns with other grasses to prevent erosion
[12,43,49]. In northeastern Washington, redtop excelled on
northeast-facing slopes where moisture was high. Redtop was not as
vigorous on southwest-facing exposures but was still present 4 years
after the seeding [12].

Prescribed burning rejuvenates redtop fields and is recommended to
enhance prairie chicken cover in the Midwest. Fields should be burned 3
to 4 years after seeding (either in August or in March prior to nesting
season) to remove duff, improve redtop vigor, and control weeds. A
second fire may be desirable 3 years after the first fire if the area is
not too densely invaded by forbs [60].

Early spring fire followed by the application of the herbicide atrazine
significantly (P less than 0.05) reduced redtop in most treatments [48].

More info on this topic.

More info for the term: hemicryptophyte

Hemicryptophyte

More info for the terms: facultative wetland species, mesic

Redtop is a facultative wetland species [47]. It grows in mesic to
semi-hydric conditions and is tolerant of some flooding [57]. It is not
tolerant of drought [27].

Redtop grows on a wide variety of soil types and textures. It is
tolerant of moderately acidic soils and soils low in calcium,
phosphorus, and potassium. It is not suited for limey soils or
limestone sites [57].

Redtop grows from sea level to subalpine elevations. In California it
occurs below 7,500 feet (2,300 m) elevation [42]. It grows up to
timberline in Montana [59].

Redtop has good cold tolerance [57]. It successfully overwintered at
Prudhoe Bay in Alaska, and in Yellowknife and the Mackenzie River region
in the Northwest Territories [27].

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This species is known to occur in association with the following cover types (as classified by the Society of American Foresters):

210 Interior Douglas-fir
217 Aspen
221 Red alder
222 Black cottonwood-willow
223 Sitka spruce
235 Cottonwood-willow

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This species is known to occur in the following ecosystem types (as named by the U.S. Forest Service in their Forest and Range Ecosystem [FRES] Type classification):

Redtop probably occurs in most ecosystems except those of the Gulf Coast.

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This species is known to occur in association with the following Rangeland Cover Types (as classified by the Society for Range Management, SRM):

More info for the terms: cover, woodland

216 Montane meadows
313 Tufted hairgrass-sedge
408 Other sagebrush types
411 Aspen woodland
421 Chokecherry-serviceberry-rose
422 Riparian
601 Bluestem prairie
602 Bluestem-prairie sandreed
802 Missouri prairie
905 Bluejoint reedgrass
Redtop may occur in other SRM Cover Types as well.

More info for the term: peat

Fire top-kills redtop. Rhizomes probably survive most fires, but they
can be severely damaged by the shallow burning of peat [19]. Seeds
buried in soil probably survive most fires.

Redtop is grown for livestock forage on moist sites [15].

More info for the terms: habitat type, phase

Redtop occurs in wet to moist meadows and grasslands. It occurs in pure
stands or with sedges (Carex spp.), spikerushes (Eleocharis spp.),
Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis), and quackgrass (Elytrigia repens)
[31,58]. In Montana it occurs with Nebraska sedge (C. nebrascensis),
meadow fescue (Festuca pratensis), Baltic rush (Juncus balticus),
scouringrush horsetail (Equisetum hyemale), and common dandelion
(Taraxacum officinale) [26]. It occurs in the southern Appalachian
grass balds dominated by mountain oatgrass (Danthonia compressa) [40].

Redtop frequently occurs in riparian areas. Brichta [5] describes
sandbar willow (Salix exigua)/redtop and fowl bluegrass (Poa
palustris)/redtop wetland community types in Montana. In Malheur
National Wildlife Refuge, Oregon, redtop was one of the dominant grasses
in the flood meadow vegetation which receives 4 to 6 inches (10-15 cm)
of floodwater in April or May [7]. Redtop occurs in the following
riparian dominance types at Malheur: mountain alder (Alnus incana),
mountain silver sagebrush (Artemisia cana spp. viscidula), sandbar
willow, MacKenzie's willow (Salix prolixa), and Kentucky bluegrass [45].

Redtop also occurs in some open forested communities. It is an
understory species in the following streamside communities in Olympic
National Park, Washington: red alder (Alnus rubra), bigleaf maple (Acer
macrophyllum), and Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis)-western hemlock
(Tsuga heterophylla)-black cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa) [16].
Redtop was present in the pine grass (Calamagrostis rubescens) phase of
the Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii)/twinflower (Linnaea borealis)
habitat type in western Montana [25].

Redtop is described as a community dominant in the following publications:

Environmental relationships among wetland community types of the
northern range, Yellowstone National Park [5]
Classification and management of Montana's riparian and wetland sites [26]

More info for the term: graminoid

Graminoid

More info for the terms: cool-season, seed, warm-season

Prior to 1940, redtop was one of the most commonly grown pasture grasses
in the U.S. Its use has declined considerably since then because it is
less palatable than other meadow grasses [15,66] and because soybeans
became a more economical crop in regions where redtop was grown [60].
Redtop is now used primarily on nutrient-poor or poorly drained soils
for hay and pasture [15]. Planting, seed harvest, and storage of redtop
seeds is described [20,57].

Redtop is favored by grazing [11,19,37]. Redtop decreased substantially
in exclosures protected from grazing for 12 years in Idaho [37].

Redtop does not inhibit growth of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa)
seedlings when they are planted together after fire [3].

Redtop is very susceptible to the herbicide atrazine. In prairie
vegetation in the Midwest, atrazine is used to eliminate or suppress
cool-season grasses such as redtop while either enhancing or having a
neutral effect on warm-season grasses [48].

Redtop forage averages 14.8 percent protein, 5.0 percent ether extract,
27.1 percent crude fiber, 44.7 percent nitrogen-free extract, and 5.6
percent lignin (dry weight) [17].

AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DE GA HI
ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA
MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM
NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD
TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY AB
BC MB NB NF NT NS ON PE PQ SK
YT

Redtop forage in moist meadows generally remains green and palatable
throughout the growing season [62]. Redtop has fairly good palatability
to livestock in spring and early summer, but palatability decreases
after seeds are mature and is poor in the winter [57]. Redtop is not as
palatable as other meadow grasses such as timothy (Phleum pratense) and
Kentucky bluegrass [66].

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Redtop begins growth in early to mid-spring and matures by mid- to late
summer [57]. In New York redtop flowers from June to July [10]. In the
Northwest, the southern Appalachian Mountains, and California, redtop
flowers from mid-June to early September [8,42,52]. It flowers from
June to August in the Great Plains [23]. Rhizomes undergo the greatest
development in July [13].

More info for the terms: cool-season, cover, density, frequency, seed

Fire generally favors redtop. Rhizomes sprout after fire and buried
seed may germinate.

Redtop was present in the postfire vegetation of the Sundance Burn
in northern Idaho. On several sites it was present and flowered in
postfire years 1 and 2, but on other sites it did not appear until more
than 10 years after the fire [50].

Redtop was not present on the Curtis Prairie, Wisconsin, in 1951, but
after 10 years of biennial dormant season burning, it had 8 percent
frequency [1].

The Hayden Prairie in northeastern Iowa was subject to early spring
fires. Redtop seedstalks, inventoried in August, did not differ
substantially between burned and unburned sites. Redtop seedstalk
density on sites burned 2 and 3 consecutive years was not significantly
diffferent from that on sites burned a single time [11]. Early spring
fires in southeastern Iowa pastureland dominated by exotic cool-season
grasses had no significant (P less than 0.05) effect on redtop cover [48].

In south-central New York, little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium)
fields and goldenrod-poverty oatgrass (Danthonia spicata) fields burned
by spring wildfires were compared to adjacent unburned sites. Redtop
increased with burning; on little bluestem fields, redtop frequency
averaged 17 percent on the unburned plots and 38 percent on the burned
plots. On goldenrod fields, redtop frequency was 25 percent on unburned
plots and 39 percent on burned plots [53]. However, redtop decreased
with 17 years of early April annual and biennial burning of little
bluestem fields in Connecticut [44]. The repeated burning may have
stressed redtop, or the species present may have actually been a
nonrhizomatous form of creeping bentgrass, which may be more susceptible
to fire than redtop.

More info for the terms: ground residual colonizer, herb, rhizome

Rhizomatous herb, rhizome in soil
Ground residual colonizer (on-site, initial community)

More info for the term: seed

Redtop regenerates vegetatively and by seed. Germination rates are
high, generally 85 percent or greater [20,61]. No pretreatment is
necessary but light is required for germination [20]. Redtop seeds are
long-lived and accumulate in a seedbank [6,38]. Germination was 91
percent after 6 years of storage [61] and 50 percent after 20 years of
storage in an uncontrolled environment [32].

Redtop spreads rapidly with strong rhizomes [26,57].

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This species can be found in the following regions of the western United States (according to the Bureau of Land Management classification of Physiographic Regions of the western United States):

1 Northern Pacific Border
2 Cascade Mountains
3 Southern Pacific Border
4 Sierra Mountains
5 Columbia Plateau
6 Upper Basin and Range
7 Lower Basin and Range
8 Northern Rocky Mountains
9 Middle Rocky Mountains
10 Wyoming Basin
11 Southern Rocky Mountains
12 Colorado Plateau
13 Rocky Mountain Piedmont
14 Great Plains
15 Black Hills Uplift
16 Upper Missouri Basin and Broken Lands

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More info for the terms: association, eruption, forbs, natural

Redtop is considered shade intolerant [20] to moderately adapted to
shade [27]. It occurs in some open forested areas. Redtop colonizes
disturbed sites. It was present on a mudflow 1 year after the May 1980
eruption of Mount St. Helens [24]. It is a pioneering species on
recently exposed gravel and sandbars [26,39]. On the peatlands of
Wisconsin, a Kentucky bluegrass-redtop association may succeed the
bluejoint reedgrass (Calamagrostis canadensis)-sedge association,
especially under heavy grazing [19].

Older stands of redtop may be replaced by forbs. In southeastern
Illinois, forbs such as western yarrow (Achillea millefolium), goldenrod
(Solidago spp.), common eveningprimrose (Oenothera biennis), common
cinquefoil (Potentilla simplex), white sweetclover (Melilotus alba), and
yellow sweetclover (M. officinalis) invade 3- to 4-year-old redtop
fields [60].

In the Midwest, reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea), which forms
dense monocultures and threatens natural wetlands, invades redtop
meadows and inhibits its growth in 3 to 5 months [2].

Agrostis alba auct. non L. [64,65]
Agrostis alba var. alba L. [30]
Agrostis stolonifera var. major (Gaudin) Farw. [23,42]

The currently accepted scientific name for redtop is Agrostis gigantea
Roth (Poaceae) [22,28,33,34].

There is considerable taxonomic confusion concerning this species. In
the literature, the most commonly used scientific name for redtop is A.
alba L. However, Linnaeus based his A. alba on a Poa species; the A.
alba in the literature is not the A. alba of Linnaeus [8]. In order to
escape this confusion, some authors have dropped the name A. alba but
have not reached a consensus on a new name. Redtop is often regarded
merely as the nonstoloniferous, mostly rhizomatous variety of the
morphologically variable creeping bentgrass (A. stolonifera) [23,42].
And conversely, creeping bentgrass is sometimes considered a variety of
A. alba [30,36]. Most literature referring to either A. alba or A.
stolonifera does not distinguish between the two species, and it is
generally impossible to determine which species the literature is
referring to. This writeup summarizes literature that refers to A.
gigantea, A. alba, and A. stolonifera var. major.

Redtop is used for temporary erosion control. Redtop is adapted to wet,
poorly drained conditions and is often used to improve streambank
stability [56,61]. It grows well on acidic and clayey sites [56].
Redtop colonized metal-contaminated soil in the smelting region near
Sudbury, Ontario [63]. It has been used with other grasses to
revegetate abandoned manganese mines in southwestern Virginia and
northeastern Tennessee [41]. Redtop was planted with other grasses on
lands disturbed by the Trans-Alaska Pipeline [9].