New Collections of Range Plants from the Soviet Union

Abstract

Range revegetation in the temperate arid and semiarid regions of the United States has been accomplished to a considerable extent with species introduced from Asia, particularly the Soviet Union. Only a small part of the Asian range-forage germplasm has been collected and evaluated in the United States. A 45-day plant-collecting expedition was authorized during the summer of 1977 to five locations in the U.S.S.R.-Stavropol, Tselinograd, Alma Ata., Dzhambul, and Chimkent. About 1,100 seed collections were made of 250 species, most of which were grasses and legumes from arid or semiarid sites. Large collections were made of Agropyron cristatum, A. desertorum, A. intermedium, A. repens, Bromus inermis, Dactylis glomerata, Festuca sulcata, Medicago falcataromanica, M. sativa, and Trifolium ambiguum. All collections have been established at Logan, Utah. Preliminary observations indicate that certain collections may be useful for forage or conservation purposes on rangeland. All accessions have been entered into the National Plant Germplasm System, and seed will be available for research and evaluation purposes in 1979 or succeeding years.