Technical note: Early harvest of squirreltail seed

Squirreltail (Sitanion hystrix (Nutt.J. G. Smith), a native, cool-season pe rennial bunchgrass of the Intermountain West has been shown to reinvade deg raded rangelands invaded by exotic annual weeds. However, one limitation to mechanical seed collection of this species is the disarticulating nature o f the rachis at seed maturity, The purpose of this reseach was to determine if early harvest of the inflorescence before disarticulation would result in viable seed. After anthesis, seeds were collected weekly in 1995 and abo ut every 10 days in 1996 at a research site near Prineville, Oregon. Seeds were germinated for 21 days at a constant temperature of 20 degreesC, Germi nable seeds were present at all collection dates from late anthesis to seed shatter in 1995, and all but early anthesis in 1996, Total germination, ra te of germination and seed weight increased as seeds were collected later i n the summer. Collection of squirreltail seed when a majority of seed awns have moved from a reddish to a divergent, straw; colored appearance resulte d in germination properties similar to fully mature seed, This occured abou t 1 week prior to the onset of seed head disarticulation.