‘USDA-Accelerate’ creeping foxtail, a new creeping foxtail with increased seedling vigor

The USDA-ARS announces the release of ‘USDA-Accelerate’ (Reg. no. CV-296, PI 706441) creeping foxtail (Alopecurus arundinaceus Poir.). USDA-Accelerate is a creeping foxtail with excellent seedling vigor and good herbage dry mass and nutritive value. Wet meadows require plant materials with excellent seedling vigor and tolerance to consistently wet conditions. Creeping foxtail grows well under these wet conditions but lacks the seedling vigor to consistently establish under the competition from other plant materials. We developed USDA-Accelerate as a Syn₁ cultivar derived from two cycles of selection from 63 genotypes from four germplasm accessions and the cultivar ‘Garrison’. The first cycle of selection was for visual disease resistance, seed production, and seed shatter, and the second cycle of selection was for deep seeding depth emergence. We compared the total emergence and emergence rate of USDA-Accelerate to that of Garrison under two rounds of deep seeding depth evaluations in the greenhouse and the agronomic performance under three field environments. USDA-Accelerate had 140% greater total emergence, 142% greater emergence rate, and similar stand establishment, herbage dry mass, and nutritive value when compared to Garrison. This release supports the USDA-ARS effort to supply improved perennial grass cultivars for animal feed and soil stabilization for the western United States. USDA-Accelerate should be an important component of revegetation projects on mountain and wet meadows in this region where perennial grass establishment is limited by weak seedling vigor.