Hi, A friend found this grass growing on her property in Virginia. She has a creek crossing her property and this grass was found in wet area. Any guesses as to what would have roots like these? Thanks in advance!
Betony has roots like those...but leaves completely dissimilar. ? Found this link, which does not answer ID question but does pertain to the geographical area: NameThatPlant.net: rhizome images
Thank-you for your response...I saw the "Florida betony" also and I was thinking same thing but this is definitely a grass...also I'm not sure of terminology for these structures on a grass....maybe I'm not searching with correct terms?
The problem with that is that we are guessing this is an "invasive",non native....she gets a lot of seeds and plant material delivered by the creek washing it in. The root is fairly "unusual", at least to me, and I thought maybe someone might see it and say oh! it's most likely in this Family or that and we would be able to track it down...we are assuming it is not an established part of the flora of VA (native or non native). She has already questioned a couple of experts in the area and they don't seem to have any ideas so I thought I'd post here!
@nitrogeninthesoil, good afternoon, I'm going to have go at this one, take a look at Zostra marina Common grasswrack.
Hello acerholic and thank-you so much for your input! Yes, that looks very similar...leaf/blade-wise. However, what about the roots? The pics I saw showed runners but none of them had "sausage-link" like roots... If you are familiar with this species do you know whether it typically has those roots? Geographically my friend is considered "coastal" even though she's somewhat inland but I could definitely imagine wash from the coast ending up in her area. So that part fits.
I assume that we're talking about Zostera marina, Eelgrass, which only lives in a saltwater environment. I've seen it exposed at low tides, but it alway lives below the high tide line. Vallisneria americana, a freshwater eelgrass, looks similar; but I couldn't find any part that looks like the segmented roots/seedstalks.
I just read my original post and I realise my mistake....I misspoke when I said she found it "growing"....it was not growing, it had been washed onto her property during a storm so I presume some could have washed there during the storm and probably would not survive if it requires saltwater. She has found a few samples of this grass though and she does not think it is Zostera. She says the segmented parts are roots/rhizomes, not seed stems. Could it be something similar to Muhlenbergia glomerata ?
Hmm, I'm afraid that's now stumped me. @vitog suggestion of Vallisneria americana is something I would think of.
Second pic down on this link shows the same "bead" root pattern....could this be the same grass? Powhatan's 2019 Lawn Journal - Page 15 - The Lawn Forum
Good job, y'all, except for not putting the actual name in the forum. The name given on that page is Poa trivialis, common name Rough Bluegrass.
