The NRCS Plant Materials Program newsletter for the conservation community 

Oct/Nov/Dec 2006 

Native Plant “Roemer’s” to Repopulate the West Coast 

Habitat loss has severely depleted the range of Roemer’s

fescue (Festuca idahoensis ssp. roemeri), a native 

grass found exclusively west of the Cascade Mountains 

in Washington, Oregon, and northwestern California. 

And its remaining populations are highly fragmented. 

“Because it’s a native plant there’s significant interest in 

using Roemer’s fescue for ecosystem restoration as well 

as revegetation and erosion

control,” said Dale Darris, 

agronomist at the Corvallis Plant 

Materials Center (PMC) in 

Corvallis, Oregon. “However, 

useable seed supplies are absent or 

controversial because of the lack 

of information on the species 

genetic diversity and the 

importance of that diversity for 

adaptation and seed transfer across 

the region.” 

In order to address these concerns, 

a collaborative study of Roemer’s

fescue was initiated in 2001 with 

the Institute of Applied Ecology 

and several government agencies including the Bureau 

of Land Management. The objective was to collect seed 

from remaining populations. The next step was to grow 

specimens in a uniformed environment or common 

garden in order to compare physical traits. Then patterns 

of variation that relate back to the plant's original 

environment were identified. 

Major outcomes of the work are to (1) establish 

preliminary seed zones or seed transfer guidelines and 

(2) make pre-varietal releases of populations specific to 

these zones for use in restoration. (Other populations 

may potentially prove valuable for vineyard cover crops, 

general erosion control, low maintenance turf, or native 

plant landscaping.) 

Wild collections of Roemer’s fescue were completed in 

2001 and 2002. The common garden study was 

conducted from 2003 through 2005. 

Nearly 2800 individual plant plots were evaluated for 

such traits as date of emergence, flowering, and maturity 

date, size, foliage amount, rust disease infection, seed 

yield, dimensions of certain floral structures, color and 

other characteristics. 

In 2004 seed was harvested from

all productive plants. By June 

2005 mortality within the nursery

reached approximately 25 percent 

and nearly 40 percent of the 

remaining individuals did not 

flower that year. In 2006, data was 

statistically analyzed to look for 

patterns of genetic variation that 

related to the environment. This 

information coupled with known 

patterns of geographic distribution 

and botanical differences were 

used to draw three zones: the 

Puget lowlands of Washington 

State, the Willamette Valley of 

Oregon, and Siskiyou area of SW Oregon and NW 

California. 

Roemer’s fescue 

Next, four to nine populations were selected from each 

of the three zones for combining into three single 

composite populations. These merged populations will 

be used to represent each zone for seed increase and 

eventual release as selected class pre-varieties. At 

present these “selected” populations are being 

recollected to provide seed for establishing initial seed 

increase fields in the fall of 2006 or spring of 2007. 

With this project and overall process, the Corvallis PMC 

hopes to demonstrate a collaborative, ecological and 

practical approach to managing the genetics, seed 

movement, and multiplication of a native grass.

Contact: Dale Darris Dale.Darris@or.usda.gov 

Visit us: http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov 

Plant Materials Program
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Th

Visit us: http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov 

The Rain in Maryland Falls Mainly in the Garden’s Plain 

With heavy rain fall last month, the National Plant 

Materials Center (NPMC) christened its rain garden. 

In the planning phase for several years now the garden, 

designed to trap stormwater runoff in a temporary

“pond”, will feature native plants among the many

specimens placed in the large garden. 

The NPMC’s rain garden is situated at the bottom of a 

slope just below the 

campus of four main 

buildings that constitute 

the headquarters of the 

USDA NRCS Plant 

Materials Program.

The garden will be 

included among the 

NPMC’s demonstration 

sites and will be used as a 

way to show visitors just 

how to construct a rain 

garden. 

Situated in Beltsville, 

Maryland, the site is 

significant in that rain 

gardens, or bioretention 

systems, were first conceived of in 1990 by stormwater 

specialists in the state of Maryland. Since that time, a 

number of people, municipalities and organizations have 

influenced and enhanced the rain garden movement in 

the United States. 

The first rain gardens were our native ecosystems. 

Before our lands were settled, rain was filtered through 

soils, roots, and plants in our native forests, wetlands,

and meadows. Most of the water that entered our surface 

waters was cool, clean groundwater. Our wealth of 

streams, rivers and lakes was naturally clean. 

When European settlers cleared the land and built

communities, the natural water-cleaning systems were

removed. Our streams and rivers became more and more 

degraded as water ran off the land instead of being taken 

up by plants, soaking into the soil, and filtered by soils 

and wetlands. 

Rain gardens were invented as a way of imitating the 

function of these natural filtering systems that 

development removed. 

A rain garden resembles a regular perennial garden in 

many ways. It is designed 

with deep-rooted plants 

that come back year after 

year; it is pretty to look at; 

it often has lovely flowers, 

grasses, trees and shrubs. 

Diagram of rain garden provided by raingarden.org 

The rain garden absorbs 

and filters rain that would 

otherwise run off your 

property and down the 

storm drain. This 

stormwater runoff usually

comes from an impervious 

surface that rain cannot 

soak into, such as a roof or 

parking lot, or even a 

lawn. 

Rain garden plants create wildlife habitat and attract 

butterflies, birds and other wildlife. Because they don't 

need to be fertilized or sprayed, only weeded and 

mulched, rain gardens can save money. Perhaps best of 

all, they reduce the amount of lawn you have to 

maintain. This makes your yard a healthier place for 

children and pets. 

Form more information on how to construct a 

rain garden go to: http://www.raingardens.org 

Contact: John Englert, Manager, 

NRCS National Plant Materials Center, 

John.Englert@md.usda.gov

Our Mission Statement: Deliver plant-science technology to meet the nation’s natural resources conservation needs.