Single Record

Species: Elymus repens [Agropyron repens] [Elytrigia repens] [Triticum repens] etc.

CommonName: quackgrass, couchgrass, couch grass, quitch, twitch, witchgrass, etc.

PhotoRecords: YES Richard Haswell: Rio Grande Co, Del Norte, between garden and street 2 Aug 2025

Comments: Quackgrass—a weed world-wide and an introduced species to the USA where it is a notorious invader of lawns and gardens—has been reported off and on from the Watershed in ruderal locations, for instance beside a house in the Baca National Wildlife Refuge (Saguache Co, 2006). Perennial and cool-season, Elymus repens also has spread to pastures and meadows, for instance Antlers Park near Creede (Mineral Co, 1939). All in all, the herbarium record does not show any serious invasion of Elymus repens in the Watershed, perhaps because of the high elevation. The USA distribution is spread across the entire West, and across the northern half of the country on east. Only Texas and the South seem relatively free of the species. It follows the Rio Grande drainage through the northern half of New Mexico, not farther down stream. Note that the sheath below the auricles can be hairy or not. The "quack" in the familiar name, by the way, derives from "quick," meaning alive; in parts of England, the term "quickgrass" was current at least as early as the second decade of the 19th century. Currently, the more common name in Great Britain is "couchgrass."