Evaluation of Native Grasses for Highway Slope Stabilization and Salt Tolerance

摘要

The objective of this study was to evaluate grass species native to New England for potential use on roadsides. We examined salt tolerance, rooting depth, and ability to establish and survive under roadside conditions. The grasses evaluated for all characteristics were red fescue, smooth brome, tuffed hairgrass, prairie junegrass, little bluestem, big bluestem, indiangrass, slender wheatgrass, Canada wildrye, Virginia wildrye, purple lovegrass, autumn bentgrass, Pumpelly's brome, panic gress, alkaligrass, nimblewill, sideoats grama and fringed brome. Additional species evaluated for some of the characteristics included creeping bentgrass, hard fescue, tall fescue, perennial ryegrass, sand dropseed, silky wildrye and eastern bottlebrush. Purple lovegrass, panic grass and switchgrass have the best of salt tolerance, deep rooting, and ability to survive roadside conditions. Alkaligrass is extremely salt tolerant and is moderate for both rooting depth and roadside survival. Red fescue and prairie junegrass are low-growing grasses which showed good salt tolerance and roadside survival but both species are shallow-rooted. Indiangrass, little bluestem, and big bluestem are deep rooted and survive well away from the pavement but lack sufficient salt tolerance for use in high salt zones.