Robert H. Mohlenbrock @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / USDA SCS. 1989. Midwest wetland flora: Field office illustrated guide to plant species. Midwest National Technical Center, Lincoln.
Hitchcock, A.S. (rev. A. Chase). 1950. Manual of the grasses of the United States. USDA Miscellaneous Publication No. 200. Washington, DC. 1950.
Robert H. Mohlenbrock @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / USDA SCS. 1989. Midwest wetland flora: Field office illustrated guide to plant species. Midwest National Technical Center, Lincoln.
USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions. Vol. 1: 209.
Steve Hurst @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database
Calamagrostis canadensis is the most common and widespread Calamagrostis in North America. First discovered in Canada, the native perennial grass spreads from Alaska to Quebec and south to all but the southeastern United States, with elevation range from sea level in the north and northwest to over 12,000 feet near it’s southern limit in New Mexico.
Canadian Reedgrass reproduces both by wind pollinated flowers (Late June to mid-July) and by vegetative reproduction, in which it is capable of producing an extensive network of rhizomes in one growing season.
Reedgrass prefers moist sites, thriving in boreal and temperate regions in moderately well drained mineral soils, but can survive in a wide range of moisture regimes and is drought tolerant and long-lived, once established. The grass is also adapted to a wide range of soil textures, tolerant of extremely acidic soils and moderately tolerant of saline soils. Canadian Reedgrass is hardy from zones three to seven.
Bluejoint Reedgrass (C. canadensis) competes with conifer seedling regeneration on disturbed moist sites, competing in nitrogen uptake and possibly by producing a thick mulch which keeps the soil cold and prevents conifer seedlings from establishing.
Canadian Reedgrass can rapidly colonize moist disturbed sites. Their rhizomes provide streambank stability. The grass is used in rehabilitation/enhancement of freshwater marshes and wetlands. C. canadensis also does well re-establishing from rhizomes and wind dispersed seeds on burned sites. Light surface fire increases abundance of Canadian Reedgrass.
Bluejoint (C. canadensis), along with sedges, forms the bulk of beaver-hay that grows in meadows too wet for cultivation. High adaptability and prolific growth of the grass might seem like a high potential for exploitation, but its small, light hairy seeds are difficult to collect and sow. Unfertilized Bluejoint is also intolerant of heavy grazing and repeated harvesting and it has relatively low nutrient content.