Puccinellia distans Seeds | Weeping Alkaligrass
LATIN NAME: Puccinellia distans
COMMON NAME: Weeping Alkaligrass
Plant Profile
Weeping alkaligrass is a tufted perennial of the grass family, native to the salt flats, coastal meadows and inland brine springs of Eurasia. It grows twenty to sixty centimetres, with fine, grey-green leaves and an open panicle whose branches droop to one side, giving the plant the weeping look of its common name.
It flowers from June to August, and the whole plant turns a dull purple-brown as the seed ripens. It is shallow-rooted but extremely salt-tolerant, and it grows where the soil is white with soda in summer and waterlogged in spring. In North America it has spread along roadsides that are salted in winter, and it is now found far from the coast.
Science & Biotechnology
The alkaligrasses are the classic examples of salt-tolerant grasses, and Puccinellia distans has been studied for the way it excludes sodium at the root and compartmentalises what gets through. It keeps potassium uptake going in solutions that would poison most grasses, and it maintains growth at salinity levels close to that of seawater.
The species has also been used in revegetation trials on brine-spill sites, on soda-ash waste and on the margins of potash mines, where few other grasses survive. Roadside populations in Europe and North America have evolved tolerance to de-icing salt within a few decades, which is one of the clearer documented cases of rapid adaptation to a human-made soil condition.
Uses & Benefits
It is sown for revegetation of saline and alkaline land, for stabilising the shoulders of salted roads, and for covering the drying margins of salt lakes. It is also used as a low-maintenance grass on sites where nothing else will grow, and it is cut for hay in some salt-marsh regions, though the feed value is modest.
In a garden it is a plant for the worst corner: a gravel path edge, a salty coastal garden, a patch of builder’s rubble. Its fine texture and drooping heads are quietly ornamental, and it stays green when the surrounding grass has burnt off. It should be watched in a wild meadow, since it seeds freely and can spread along salted ground.
Growing from Seed
Sow in spring or early autumn on the surface of a sandy compost, and keep it damp until the seedlings are up. Fresh seed germinates in ten to fourteen days at 15-20 °C, and no pretreatment is needed. The seedlings are fine and slow for the first month.
Plant out in full sun in soil that drains but stays slightly damp below the surface, and add a little salt or wood ash to the planting hole if the ground is not naturally saline. The plant needs no feeding. Cut it back in late winter to stop the old growth matting, and divide the tufts every three or four years to keep them vigorous.
Our Take
The grass for ground that is too salty for anything else, with a fine weeping head in summer. Sow it on the worst corner and forget it.
Related Reading
If Weeping Alkaligrass appeals to you, these related plants are worth a look: