Alopecurus myosuroides
Ecology
An annual of rank and neglected grassland and arable land, rapidly increasing by seed to become a pest, particularly of cereal crops. It grows on both light and heavy soils. Lowland.
Status
Trends
A. myosuroides has maintained, or slightly increased, its core distribution since the 1962 Atlas. It is still a frequent and troublesome weed of arable land. Some strains have evolved specific resistance to several commonly used herbicides, especially in E. Britain, and the species has benefited from the increased planting of winter cereal crops and the decline of stubble burning.
World Distribution
As an archaeophyte A. myosuroides has a European Southern-temperate distribution; it is widely naturalised outside this range.
Broad Habitats
Light (Ellenberg): 6
Moisture (Ellenberg): 5
Reaction (Ellenberg): 7
Nitrogen (Ellenberg): 6
Salt Tolerance (Ellenberg): 0
January Mean Temperature (Celsius): 3.7
July Mean Temperature (Celsius): 15.9
Annual Precipitation (mm): 765
Height (cm): 80
Perennation - primary
Life Form - primary
Woodiness
Clonality - primary
Count of 10km squares in Great Britain: 1071
Count of 10km squares in Ireland: 6
Count of 10km squares in the Channel Isles: 4
Atlas Change Index: 0.42
Weighted Changed Factor: 11
Weighted Change Factor Confidence (90%)
JNCC Designations
Atlas text references
Atlas (401c)
.
1986. Atlas of north European vascular plants north of the Tropic of Cancer. 3 vols.
.
1965. Vergleichende Chorologie der zentraleuropäischen Flora. Volume 1. 2 vols.
.
1972. Biological Flora of the British Isles. No. 129. Alopecurus myosuroides Huds. Journal of Ecology. 60:611-622.