Congratulations to researchers at Aberystwyth University who have developed a new ryegrass species which could help reduce the impact of flooding through its roots system. The hybrid can capture more water in soils than is possible with current agricultural grasses. This then reduces run-off which could help minimise flood generation.

I was fascinated by this because I have not heard of changes to the root architecture before, and was pleased that Prof Wayne Powell, who I worked with at NIAB, could explain the multi-use of this new rye grass hybrid in this audioboo interview.

Over two years of field experiments in Devon the team demonstrated that the Festulolium hybrid  reduced water run-off from agricultural grassland by up to 51 per cent compared to a leading UK nationally-recommended perennial ryegrass variety and by 43 per cent compared to meadow fescue, its two parental species. The successful results were recently published by a collaboration of plant scientists from across the UK showing that a new grass hybrid developed by plant breeders at the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Biological Research (IBERS) at Aberystwyth University has the potential to alleviate flooding.
It is thought the reduced run-off is achieved because Festulolium’s intense initial root growth and subsequent rapid turn-over, especially at depth, generates  a more porous soil which allows more water capture.The hybrid grass also provides high quality forage with resilience to weather extremes, making the grass doubly useful to farmers.