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Crested Wheatgrass

Agropyron cristatum · Poaceae · all Agropyron records

Your local evidence lens

Separate evidence questions, never one approval badge

Set a ZIP to compare this record with state distribution, native range, USDA hardiness, and invasive records.

A genus split is not a placement verdict. Set a ZIP to read the local documented split.

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence: Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Fire-performance conditions: No test or rating condition is normalized.
Fire ecology context: No section-reviewed fire-ecology context is normalized.
Placement evidence: 5 source placement records; source schemes remain separate.
Evidence regions: British Columbia; Great Basin; Great Basin / Intermountain West; Montana / Northern Rockies; Nevada / Great Basin; Northern Nevada / Great Basin; Utah / Intermountain West; southern Idaho / Intermountain
Maintenance: No sourced horticultural maintenance assertion is normalized; fire-test conditions do not supply maintenance advice.

Typed publication scope: 4 scopes across 4 cited fire sources

Fire Resistance of Plants Master Database · Official scoped edition
- Southern Idaho (ID footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2013-11-08
  The official database labels itself "For Southern Idaho" and describes Idaho residents at the urban-rangeland interface. FireApproved publishes 419 existing plant owners that cite its scored rows. This bounded Southern Idaho scope is regional context, not statewide coverage or a conclusion that the score transfers unchanged to every Idaho site.
Fire-Resistant Plants for Montana Landscapes (MontGuide MT200101AG) · Official scoped edition
- MT; partial normalized coverage · 2022-04-01
  The April 2022 MontGuide explicitly presents fire-resistant species adapted to Montana. FireApproved publishes 92 exact plant records from the source while retaining excluded genus, family, and unresolved rows; the guide itself says not every listed species grows in every part of the state.
A Compilation of Good Plant Choices for Nevada's High Fire Hazard Areas (SP-05-16) · Official scoped edition
- NV; partial normalized coverage · 2005-01-01
  University of Nevada Cooperative Extension compiled plants suited to Nevada climate zones and reported favorably by at least two upstream firewise lists. FireApproved publishes 126 exact source owners at Nevada publication scope. The source explicitly makes no independent flammability determination, so these rows remain corroborative.
Firewise Plants for Utah Landscapes (NR/FF/002) · Official scoped edition
- UT; partial normalized coverage · 2005-02-01
  Utah State University Extension states that this fact sheet selects examples for Utah landscapes and that they require proper placement and maintenance. FireApproved publishes 83 exact source owners at Utah publication scope. The table is not a site-specific planting clearance.

2. Why this plant is relevant here

State distribution: Documented in AK, CA, CO, CT, DE, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, MA, MI, MN, MT, ND, NE, NH, NM, NV, NY, OK, OR, SD, TX, UT, WA, WY.
Native range: No current cited or legacy state native range is normalized.
Introduced / established: 29 sourced range or established records; set a location to match them. This is not an invasive warning.
USDA hardiness: Documented minimum 4a; no upper limit is documented.

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

Legal-list status: Set a location for an exact legal-list result; source silence is not clearance.
Seed-list status: Set a location to compare the separate state noxious-weed seed layer.
Reported invasive here: 1 ecological invasive report; set a location to distinguish exact from regional context.
Broader regional context: Aggregate AK, HI, and L48 evidence is shown only as regional context, never as an exact-state finding.
Federal context: Federal designations remain separate from state legal-list results.

How to read this page

The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.

Crested Wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum) — Photo: (c) Douglas Goldman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), uploaded by Douglas Goldman (CC BY-SA), via iNaturalist. Species-typical, not necessarily this cultivar.

Form: grass
USDA hardiness: Minimum 4a; upper limit not documented
Mature height: ~2 ft
Water need: low
Grows in: AK, CA, CO, CT, DE, IA, ID, IL +20
Rated in: British Columbia; Great Basin; Great Basin / Intermountain West; Montana / Northern Rockies +4
Family: Poaceae
Evidence: 8 cited sources

Native and introduced range evidence

These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval. Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.

Current native

0

exact source areas

Current introduced

28

exact source areas

Qualified

0

doubtful or extinct source rows

28 introduced source areas · World Checklist of Vascular Plants, version 16 v16, as of 2026-06-04

Alaska (AK)
California (CA)
Colorado (CO)
Delaware (DE)
Iowa (IA)
Idaho (ID)
Illinois (IL)
Indiana (IN)
Kansas (KS)
Kentucky (KY)
Massachusetts (MA)
Michigan (MI)
Minnesota (MN)
Montana (MT)
North Dakota (ND)
Nebraska (NE)
New Hampshire (NH)
New Mexico (NM)
Nevada (NV)
New York (NY)
Oklahoma (OK)
Oregon (OR)
South Dakota (SD)
Texas (TX)
Utah (UT)
Washington (WA)
Wisconsin (WI)
Wyoming (WY)

The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.

Plant hardiness evidence

These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.

USDA PLANTS Database — Plant Characteristics · record AGCR · PLANTS Help Document 2022; characteristics cache retrieved 2026-08-23 · as of 2026-08-26

Minimum 4a · no upper limit documented · half zone precision · derived containing band

Exact source measurement: -28°F; mapped only to its containing half-zone.

Source taxon: Agropyron cristatum · source identifier match.

Source location: PlantCharacteristics record 20068, Temperature, Minimum (°F).

Where its sources say to plant it

Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating. They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.

Fire Resistance of Plants Master Database: plantable at 70' from home [Idaho minimum planting distance] (mid-scale rating)
FireSmart BC Plant Program: suitable for HIZ extended zone and beyond [FireSmart BC Home Ignition Zone] (with its recommendation)
Fuel Breaks to Reduce Large Wildfire Impacts in Sagebrush…: common plant material option for a managed greenstrip in sagebrush ecosystems [nrcs-tn66-greenstrip] (with its recommendation)
Greenstrips: Another Tool to Manage Wildfire: common perennial plant used in a maintained northern Nevada greenstrip [unr-fs-97-36-greenstrip] (with its recommendation)
Forage Kochia Helps Fight Range Fires: species used in a semiarid western rangeland greenstrip [harrison-2002-greenstrip] (with its recommendation)

The evidence

Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself (a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.

Recommends (7)

FireSmart BC Plant Program — fire-resistant plant chart — FireSmart BC · original source Corroboration Compilation lineage: firesmart-bc-plant-database

“FireSmart-approved fire-resistant plant”
A Compilation of Good Plant Choices for Nevada's High Fire Hazard Areas (SP-05-16) — University of Nevada Cooperative Extension · SP-05-16 (2005) · original source Corroboration Compilation lineage: unr-tree

“listed by at least two cited sources”

Compilation marks: OSU FRN 6, USU NR/FF/002.
Firewise Plants for Utah Landscapes (NR/FF/002) — Utah State University Extension · 2005 revision · original source Primary evidence Expert-curated lineage: usu-kuhns

“listed as a firewise plant for Utah landscapes”

Source says the plant can be firewise when properly used and maintained.
Fire-Resistant Plants for Montana Landscapes (MontGuide MT200101AG) — Montana State University Extension · Current as of 4/22 · original source Primary evidence Expert-curated lineage: msu-montguide

“listed fire-resistant”

Listed among fire-resistant plant species adapted to Montana.
Fuel Breaks to Reduce Large Wildfire Impacts in Sagebrush Ecosystems (Plant Materials Technical Note 66) — USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Boise, Idaho · Plant Materials Technical Note 66 · original source Primary evidence Expert-curated lineage: greenstrip-tree

“Common plant material options for greenstrips.”

Appendix B row: Crested Wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum or desertorum). Origin: Introduced; lifeform: Bunchgrass; relative height: Mid-Tall; seedling vigor: Rapid; longevity: Long. Precipitation zone: 9-16 in; soil texture: fine, medium, and coarse; seeds/lb: 165,000; single-species drill seeding rate: 5 lb/ac; seeding depth: 1/4-1/2 in. Recommended releases: Hycrest, Hycrest II, Nordan, Summit. The printed row names Agropyron cristatum or desertorum; this evidence owner is the exact A. cristatum identity.
Greenstrips: Another Tool to Manage Wildfire (Fact Sheet 97-36) — University of Nevada Cooperative Extension · Fact Sheet 97-36 · original source Primary evidence Expert-curated lineage: greenstrip-tree

“Common perennial plants used in greenstrips and selected characteristics important to their establishment and use”

Table 1 row: Crested Wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum). Minimum yearly precipitation: 8-10 inches; salt or alkali tolerance: Moderate; status: I; growth form, flower color, or season: Bunch; varieties: ‘Ephraim’, ‘Fairway’. The fact sheet says greenstrips should be grazed or mown frequently enough to reduce fuel buildup; otherwise their effectiveness is reduced dramatically.
Forage Kochia Helps Fight Range Fires — Society for Range Management (Rangelands) · Rangelands 24(5) · original source Primary evidence Expert-curated lineage: greenstrip-tree

“Species frequently used in greenstrips.”

Table 1 row: crested wheatgrass — Agropyron cristatum J. Gaertner, and A. desertorum (Fischer ex Link) Schultes. The article says these are species frequently used in greenstrips; it does not report a separate burn result for this row.

Mid-scale / conditional (1)

Fire Resistance of Plants Master Database — Idaho Firewise (BLM + College of Western Idaho + Idaho Botanical Garden) · original source Primary evidence Field program lineage: idaho-tree

“fire-resistance score 4 of 10” · score 4 (idaho-0-10)

Last verified 2026-08-23. JSON (CC BY 4.0)

Profiles: USDA PLANTS · GBIF · iNaturalist · Wikidata · ITIS

Agropyron cristatum (Crested Wheatgrass). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/agropyron-cristatum/. Last verified 2026-08-23.